Vampire in Geek's Clothing (Psy-Vamp Book 6) (22 page)

“Get off of her,” Hayden snarled at the human holding
Phoenix down.

The guy glared at Hayden, probably wondering why they were
taking orders from him, but the wiry human shouted at the guy on top of her.
“We won’t get all our money if we piss him off.”

“Glad one of you still remembers who’s in charge,” Hayden
snarled, shoving Helena at the wiry human. “Cover her fucking mouth so she
can’t make a sound.”

The human holding Phoenix down tucked his gun into the back
of his pants, before dragging her to her feet and holding her from behind with
one arm wrapped tightly around her ribs.

The wiry human’s hand slid over Helena’s mouth, but she
didn’t let him manhandle her. Helena knew she was much stronger than any of the
humans in the room, and she used that to her advantage, slamming an elbow into
his belly with enough force to knock him back several steps. Phoenix used that
distraction to punch the human behind her in the diaphragm. She figured if it
was enough to take Drew down, it would definitely work on a human. Sure enough,
he flew backward.

“Run!” she shouted at Helena, but the woman seemed
determined to stay and help her.

“Fucking bitches!” Hayden shouted, pointing a gun at Helena.
“I’ll fucking kill her if either of you move.”

“Take the gun away from him,” Helena told the humans, using
vampire compulsion.

Things all moved quickly from there. The door slammed open,
and Josef raced toward Helena as Hayden fired the gun. Helena fell to the side
when Josef’s body slammed into her, just as the bullet tore through his body.

“Josef!” Helena screamed. When Helena pulled herself out
from under Josef, one of the humans was on her, slamming her head against the
floor so hard she blacked out.

“Tie her up and duct tape her mouth,” Hayden ordered in a
voice that shook with rage. “I’m going to deal with my slut cousin first.”

His glare turned on her, and Hayden kept the gun pointed at
Helena as he approached. “You just fucked up big time, bitch,” he growled.
“Before we get the fuck out of here, I’m going to show you who’s superior. If
you cause me any more trouble, I’ll put a bullet in the vampire whore’s head.
This is your last warning. Do you understand me?”

Phoenix nodded. “What do you want?”

Isaiah had no plan when they made their way into the back of
the barn after hearing a gunshot. There was no longer any time to worry about
anything else. It would have been nice if his father could have told them how
many people were in the barn, but he’d obviously had other things to worry
about. The commotion made it easier for him and Aiden to slip in the back
unnoticed.

It took all his self-control not to rush into the main part
of the barn. Both of his parents were unconscious. Based on the blood around
his father, he’d say he was the one who’d been shot. The crazy bastard, Hayden,
was waving a gun around like a madman, gripping Phoenix’s hair and throwing out
all kinds of vile threats.

Aiden tapped his shoulder and put his hand up, making a
finger gun motion toward Hayden.

Isaiah nodded because that was the best solution. They
needed to take Hayden down, and then the humans would be easy to deal with. The
problem was angles. From where Hayden was standing, and the way he kept jerking
around, Isaiah risked shooting Phoenix. Now, he wished he’d scaled the side of the
barn with Drew.

Pulling his pistol, he aimed and waited. “Come on, asshole.
Let her go so I can send you to hell,” he said quietly.

Drew had been pretty sure the crazy chick with the sweet ass
was Shayla. Even if she wasn’t, he figured someone needed to see what she was
up to. The chick hadn’t done a very good job of concealing the pistol. Most
people might not have been able to sneak up on her, but he’d had a lifetime of
training to make him the killer he was today. Stalking had been a big part of
his training.

The crazy woman was lying at the edge of the loft, aiming
the handgun.

The first thing Drew noticed was the way her hands shook,
and he knew there was no way she was going to make the shot. Actually, he had
to admit that the first thing he’d noticed was her round ass wiggling around,
but he pushed that to the back of his mind.

“Let me help you,” Drew said softly, hoping she wouldn’t
startle and shoot him. She rolled over, pointing the gun at him. “Try not to
shoot me, babe. I really am here to help.”

“Why would you want to help me?” she asked. He saw the
recognition in her eyes. He looked enough like his father that she couldn’t
help but see the relationship. “Who are you?” she demanded, still pointing the
gun at him.

Sick bastard that he was, he was getting turned on by having
her aim a gun at him.

“Andrei was my father,” he explained with a casual shrug. He
figured someone needed to remain calm.

She nodded and rolled back onto her belly. After taking a
deep shuddering breath, she looked over her shoulder. “I need to do this.”

“No, baby, you don’t need to do this,” he crooned softly.
“Give me the gun.”

She shook her head wildly. “He’s just going to kill someone
else. You don’t know what kind of monster he is.”

“I do know what kind of monster he is,” Drew assured her.
“Give me the gun, and I’ll take care of everything. I’m not going to let him
walk out of here today.”

Reaching his hand out slowly, Drew waited to see what she’d
do. The strange part of all this was that he wasn’t waiting with indifference
like he’d expect. He should be standing here, curious to see how this played
out but not really caring who put a bullet in Hayden’s head. While he could
argue that he was only trying to convince her to give him the gun because he
was worried she’d screw this up, that would be a lie. Drew was genuinely
concerned about how this would impact Shayla.

“Baby, give me the gun, and let me do this for you,” he
urged. “You weren’t meant to be a killer.”

Finally, she nodded and set the gun beside her on the loft
floor. Drew dropped down beside her and took the gun, carefully aiming at
Hayden, trying to get a good shot that would minimize the danger to Nixie.
Gently squeezing the trigger, he cursed under his breath when Hayden suddenly
moved, and the bullet slammed into his shoulder instead of his head.

The bullet in Hayden’s shoulder was enough to make him drop
his gun, which is when Isaiah passed his own gun off to Aiden and lunged at
Hayden. While he’d planned to kill him, it felt wrong to shoot an unarmed man,
no matter how evil that man was.

Aiden remained calm and started barking orders at the
humans.

“Set you weapons on the ground and line up against that
wall,” Aiden commanded, and both humans obeyed.

Hayden pulled a knife and tried to stab Isaiah as they
rolled around on the ground. It was surprising how strong Hayden was with the
shoulder wound. Hayden managed to stab Isaiah in the arm, which hurt like hell.
Isaiah slammed his other fist into Hayden’s shoulder with the bullet wound,
causing Hayden to scream and release his hold on the knife.

Struggling to his feet, Isaiah wasn’t having quite as much
success ignoring the pain, making his moves more sluggish when Hayden came at
him again.

Phoenix moved between them and slammed her fist into
Hayden’s wounded shoulder, knocking him back two steps. A second bullet came
from the loft area, hitting Hayden in the chest. Screaming in pain, Hayden
collapsed onto the barn floor, bleeding heavily from the chest wound.

“Are you okay?” Isaiah asked Phoenix.

“Sit down,” she told him. “Oh, God, he stabbed you. We need
a doctor.”

“Call Justin and see when he’ll be here,” Isaiah told her,
pulling the phone from his pocket since Aiden was busy securing the humans at
the other end of the room. “I’m going to make sure Hayden doesn’t have any
other weapons.”

Isaiah searched Hayden, even though he was pretty sure the
bastard was close to death and incapable of pulling a weapon.

“It’s Phoenix,” she spoke into his phone, her voice
trembling slightly. “I hope you have your medical bag. Your father’s been shot,
your brother’s been stabbed, and your mom is unconscious.”

“I’m okay,” Helena croaked.

“Your mom just regained consciousness,” Phoenix amended.

“Okay,” Phoenix replied before ending the call and turning
to Isaiah. “They’re here now.”

“Where the fuck is Drew?” Aiden called out.

“Drew was with you?” Phoenix asked.

“Yeah,” Isaiah told her. “He should be in the loft area. He
followed a woman we believe is Shayla in through a window.”

Justin, Roman, and Caitlin raced into the barn and spread
out to start offering help to those in need of medical attention. Since Josef
was the most seriously injured, Justin sent Caitlin to help Isaiah and stayed
with his father.

“I need to check on Drew and Shayla,” Phoenix said before
making her way to the ladder and climbing up to the loft. Up there, she found
no sign of Shayla, just Drew lying on his stomach, with his head turned to the
side. He wasn’t moving, so Phoenix rushed over, kneeling beside him to check
for injuries.

Drew groaned and slowly opened his eyes. “Stop poking me,
Nix.”

“What happened?” she asked.

Pushing himself up onto his knees, Drew rubbed the back of
his head. “After I saved your lunachick cousin from having to shoot her own
brother, she bashed me over the head and took off.”

“Should we go after her?” Isaiah asked. Apparently, he’d
decided to follow her.

“Yes,” Drew replied immediately.

“No,” Phoenix said at the same time.

“Are you kidding me?” Drew demanded. “She’s in danger.”

“From what?” Phoenix asked.

“Herself,” Drew insisted.

Phoenix couldn’t really argue with that, but at the same
time, her cousin was an adult. “She’ll contact us if she needs help.”

Struggling to his feet, Drew looked seriously pissed when
his eyes landed on Isaiah. “Did you climb a fucking ladder with a stab wound?”

Phoenix would have laughed at Drew’s incredulous tone if she
weren’t a little angry with Isaiah for that very reason.

Isaiah shrugged, and then winced from the pain. “What can I
say? I couldn’t resist coming up here to see if you’d gotten your ass kicked by
Phoenix’s cousin.”

“Fuck you,” Drew shot back with no real heat. “I’m going to
look around outside for clues about where Shayla went.” With that, he climbed
down from the loft, leaving her alone with Isaiah.

Phoenix gave Isaiah a stern look. “You are old enough that
you should know how reckless it is to climb a ladder while your arm is
bleeding. Aren’t you supposed to be down there letting Caitlin take care of
you?”

“What I need is to be close to you.” His words stopped the
rant she was warming up for. “I love you.”

Tears pooled in Phoenix’s eyes. “I love you, too,” she
replied.

“Don’t cry,” Isaiah murmured, gathering her against his
chest with his uninjured arm. “You scared the hell out of me today. Please
don’t do that to me again.”

His words only made her weepier.

“Why are you crying?” he asked, sounding helpless and
clueless.

“After so many years of thinking I had to be alone, I’m
still having trouble believing all of this is real,” she admitted. “I never
thought I’d have a normal life.”

Isaiah let out a strained chuckle, pain etched on his face.
“I’m not sure anyone would call life with my family normal, but it’s definitely
not boring.”

To say things had been crazy in the last month would be an
understatement, but Phoenix couldn’t deny that she was happier than she’d ever
been. Isaiah’s stab wound was healing nicely, even though he mostly ignored
Justin’s advice about not using that arm. Josef was alive and incredibly
cranky, but he’d live. There had been no romantic reconciliation between him
and Helena after he’d saved her life, but Helena was actively involved in his
care. Phoenix was pretty sure they were developing a friendship, which seemed
to shock Josef more than anyone else. As for Drew, he was no less obsessed with
Shayla, and Phoenix was convinced that would end badly for them both. Of
course, there seemed to be no talking Drew out of trying to find her. Every
day, he was on the phone with Isaiah trying to track her down. Poor Isaiah was
on the verge of changing his number.

Looking at the boxes that needed to be unpacked, Phoenix
shook her head. She still couldn’t believe she was moving into her new home.
The part that shocked her most was that she was moving in with Isaiah—a vampire
of all things. Even while she’d been arguing that vampires weren’t so different
from hunters, she’d never expected to end up living with one, let alone being
in love with one.

“What are you thinking so hard about?” Isaiah asked as he
came up behind her and kissed her neck.

Turning, she looked at her sexy nerd. He’d just gotten his
hair cut unbelievably short, and now it was its natural dark brown. She wasn’t
sure she liked it this short. He’d explained that he only got around to having
it cut a couple of times a year, so he always got it cut really short when he
finally went in.

“Just thinking how crazy it is that I’m living with a
vampire,” she admitted.

Isaiah chuckled. “You haven’t spent a single night out of my
bed since the first time I got you naked.”

“What can I say?” she asked, placing her hands on his hard
chest. “I just can’t resist a sexy nerd.”

“If you think I’m sexy now, just wait until you see what I
brought with me.”

By the teasing look in his eyes, she was almost afraid to
ask. “Do I want to know?”

Isaiah turned away from her to grab something from the
laptop bag he must have carried in with him, and then he began fumbling with
his dress shirt. When he turned around, Phoenix laughed so hard, she had to
brace herself on the table for support.

“Pretty hot, huh?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows and
gesturing to his pocket protector.

“You were right,” she admitted. “Pocket protectors are
definitely sexy.”

“Do you want to see what I have in my pocket protector?” he
asked.

She giggled. “Is that some nerdy pick up line?”

“Come on,” he crooned. “Check out what I’ve got in there.”

“Fine,” she relented. Reaching her fingers inside, she froze
when she felt the ring at the bottom.

“I wanted to ask you a question,” he said with an adorable
lopsided grin.

“What’s that?” she asked, her fingers still in his pocket
protector.

“Maybe you should take the ring out first,” he prompted.

Phoenix nodded and pulled out the simple white gold band with
a small diamond. “What did you want to ask me?” she prompted.

“I’d think it was obvious,” he replied.

Phoenix laughed. “This is turning into the most inept
proposal in history.”

“I know we haven’t known each other long,” he began, “but
you’re the only woman for me. Will you marry me?”

“Yes,” she replied happily, and melted into his arms when he
kissed her.

When he finally broke their kiss, Isaiah grinned at her. “It
was the pocket protector that made you say yes, wasn’t it?”

“They are very useful,” she agreed.