Wanton With a Vampire (12 page)

Tendrils of fear moved along Trish’s body as
she tried to remind herself that they were in a crowded shopping
mall, so she was safe. Then again, she’d heard of people being
kidnapped in crowded places before. She turned pleading eyes toward
Drew, but his focus was on Phoebe. At the moment, she could only
hope her faith in Drew wasn’t misplaced. He’d admitted to being a
sociopath, but he’d also said he wouldn’t hurt her.

“They’re
your
hobbies,” Drew told his
mother, sounding sad. “I can’t go with you, Mom. Just leave the
area. If you don’t disappear, eventually, someone will find you,
and Roman’s done giving ultimatums.”

Stunned silence followed Drew’s words. When
Trish turned toward Phoebe, the woman’s expression was a mix of
confusion and hurt, but those emotions faded into a terrifying
coldness. Trish imagined many of Phoebe’s victims saw that look. It
was hard to keep from shaking. Finally, Phoebe responded. “What do
you mean, you
can’t
go with me?”

“I need to take Trish home,” Drew said.

Phoebe studied Drew for a long time before
nodding. “Fine. I have some things to take care of. Remember, I’m
only allowing this because I love you so much.”

Drew nodded. “I know you love me. I love you
too, and that’s why I want you to run while you still have the
chance.”

Without another word, Phoebe walked away.

Drew stood beside the bench, watching his
mother leave with a lost expression that tugged at Trish’s heart.
“If you see her again, run like hell,” he warned. “She let you go
today because my reaction threw her off. Next time, you won’t be so
lucky. It’s possible she’ll try to use you to get me to go with
her. If that’s her plan, she won’t kill you, but that doesn’t mean
she won’t torture you for fun.”

“Maybe we should have corrected her
misconception,” Trish said.

“Then she wouldn’t have any reason to let you
live,” he explained. “She might have even figured out you’re
Alek’s, and she would have used you to get to him.”

“I don’t belong to Alek,” Trish insisted.

Drew shrugged.

“Thanks for not letting her take me. Don’t
take it the wrong way, but I was worried you might let her kill
me,” she said.

Rather than being offended, Drew laughed, and
the tension seemed to drain from his body. “I’m kind of surprised
too, babe. Part of the reason I know I’m crazy is that I’m not
always sure how I’ll react.”

“Lydia says you play up the crazy too much,
and you’re not that insane,” Trish said as she gathered up her bags
and stood.

“Do you honestly wanna test that theory?” he
asked with a smirk.

Trish held his gaze for several seconds
before looking down at her lemonade and shaking her head. “Not
really, but thank you for today anyway.”

“If it makes any difference, I don’t think
I’d let anyone hurt you,” he said softly.

“It makes more difference than you know,” she
said, giving him a shaky smile. “Would you mind if I hold your arm
on the way to the car? I really don’t want to see things that
aren’t there right now.”

Drew put out his arm. “Fine, but don’t go
telling people about me doing this kind of stuff for you. I don’t
want anyone else to expect me to be nice to them.”

“Don’t worry,” she said, patting his arm.
“Your secret is safe with me.”

Alek was pacing the confines of Trish’s
living room. He’d been edgy since she’d walked out the door with
Drew. Idiot that he was, he hadn’t even considered the need to get
her cell number. Considering all they’d been through, he should at
least have her number on his phone. Then again, he’d been trying
hard to avoid making contact with Trish for reasons he didn’t care
to admit.

His brother, Roman, had forbidden him from
sleeping with Trish. From the beginning, Trish had tempted him, and
since he’d never been good at following Roman’s orders, they
weren’t a deterrent from sleeping with a sexy woman. In fact, with
his disdain for being told what to do, the order made it more
likely he
would
sleep with her. The problem with Trish was
that he liked her. It hadn’t taken him long to realize Trish was
much more than a hot woman. No, she was kind and sweet-natured with
everyone. Only he seemed to benefit from the sassy attitude she
kept so well hidden. He liked how she was more uninhibited with
him. Trish could never be a simple fling to him. In truth, it
wasn’t in her nature to be that with any man.

When he heard footsteps heading toward the
condo, Alek hurried to sit on the sofa and grabbed a magazine so he
wouldn’t look anxious for her return. When she walked in the door,
he spared her a brief glance. “How was your shopping?” he
asked.

“Fine,” she said, her lips twitching. “What
did you do while I was gone?”

“Just a little reading,” he said and held up
the magazine.

“Good for you!” she said, and he heard the
laughter in her voice. “Other than Aiden, I don’t know many men who
read
Cosmo
.”

Alek frowned at the article he’d been
pretending to read. It promised to show him how to drive his man
wild in bed. “I was a little worried about you being out with
Drew,” he admitted.

“As you can see, I’m fine. Drew was a perfect
gentleman.”

“Don’t tell him that,” Drew whined.

“You didn’t let your mother kidnap me,” Trish
reminded him.

Alek was off the sofa and across the room in
a heartbeat. He gripped Trish’s arms. “What did you say?”

“We ran into Drew’s mother.” Her voice was
light, not at all like a woman who’d had a run-in with a dangerous
killer. While Phoebe preferred male victims, she’d been known to
kill a woman when the mood struck her.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” he asked
with a forced calm that nearly left him shaking.

Trish jerked away and stomped across the
room. “It’s not like I approached her,” she said as she set her
bags on the sofa. “The woman sat next to me and started talking
because she thought Drew was my boyfriend.”

“So, you sat there and had a nice little chat
with the crazy woman?” Alek demanded. Even knowing how irrational
he sounded, he couldn’t help it.

Trish tapped her foot, and it looked like she
wanted to hit him, which was having the usual effect of making his
dick twitch against the zipper on his jeans.

“How was I supposed to know she was Drew’s
mother? No one ever bothered to tell me what she looked like. As
you may recall, I wasn’t important enough to be warned about her,
because I was just an insignificant human.”

“You were always important to me,” Alek said
without looking at Trish. He felt both Trish and Drew staring at
him.

“I gotta ask a question here,” Drew said with
his trademark poor timing. “Why aren’t you boning Trish?”

Trish gasped and blushed, which pissed Alek
off even more. “For once in your life, could you try to think
before you open your damn mouth? I’m here to take care of Trish,
not take advantage of her.”

Drew pondered that for a moment. “I guess
that was a little crude. Lydia doesn’t seem to get offended, so I
kind of forget Trish is more prudish.”

“I am not prudish,” Trish argued.

Drew merely shrugged, still thinking hard.
“It doesn’t make any sense. You’re not acting like you just want to
bo- I mean, fornicate with Trish.”

“Fornicate?” Trish asked. “I’ve read your
book, and you can come up with a better word than that.”

“Just because I write that stuff doesn’t mean
I’m going to talk that way,” Drew argued before sighing. “Fine,
I’ll try using more terms like in my book. You like Trish, so I
don’t see why you aren’t taking advantage of the attraction between
you.”

“I don’t have sex with every woman I like,”
Alek argued, and Trish giggled. “Why are you laughing at me?” he
asked her with a raised eyebrow.

Drew answered for her. “She’s laughing
because you have a reputation for screw- I mean, pleasuring
anything with two legs and a pulse. Okay, I don’t like this
thinking before I speak thing, so fuck it. My mom thought Trish was
with me, and that’s why she was talking to Trish. I guess I should
feel kinda bad about that, and I might have if Trish was hurt. Who
knows? Anyway, when she thought I was with Trish, I got to thinking
how I’d be proud if a nice woman like Trish wanted to be with me.
I’d screw it up in less than a day, but it would be nice until
then.”

Trish walked over and squeezed Drew’s hand.
“I’m sure you could find a nice girl.”

Drew stared at her. “Hopefully, you’re just
trying to be nice. Otherwise, you’re crazier than I am.”

“Okay, so you have a few issues,” Trish said
hesitantly.

Drew laughed. “Don’t worry about finding a
polite way to say it. I’m not looking for a relationship. This
wasn’t about me getting sympathy. Back to this thing about you two
fucking. I don’t get why you’re giving me the
just friends
line. Seriously, I took Trish shopping, and the woman spent over an
hour in Victoria’s Secret. My assumption is she was buying sexy
panties to wear for you. Okay, it’s not really an assumption since
I watched her through the window, and they are some pretty fucking
sexy panties.”

Alek stifled a groan, and his gaze moved to
Trish’s bags. He had been so on edge, he hadn’t paid attention to
her purchases when she’d first walked in. “Don’t embarrass her,” he
snapped at Drew.

Trish snorted. “I am so done with the macho
posturing. Drew can fill you in on the details of what happened
with his mom while I take a long bath and read a book.”

Drew’s lips curled into his trademark flirty
smile. “Need any help, babe?”

When Trish glared back, Drew laughed.

“Thank you for taking me shopping,” Trish
continued as she gathered up her bags and headed into her room.

As soon as Trish was out of the room, Alek
turned his attention to Drew. “You know your mother better than
anyone. Tell me what the chances are of her trying to contact Trish
again.”

Drew thought for quite some time, which made
Alek nervous. “It would be best if you keep Trish close to home and
she avoids being around me. My mom didn’t follow us all the way
back here. I took a longer route so I could lose her, but that
doesn’t mean she won’t find Trish. My mom’s the one who taught me
everything I know about hunting.”

“She tried to follow you back here?” Alek was
working hard to keep his voice level.

Drew nodded. “I expected her to do something
like that, so I was prepared to lose her. I even had a plan when we
left the mall.”

“Smart,” Alek said with a nod of
approval.

“Nah, it was stupid,” Drew said. “What I
should have done was play it off like Trish was a human I was
toying with and left her at the mall for you to pick up later.
Having my mom watch me lead Trish out of the mall and work hard to
protect her painted a fucking target on Trish.”

“You think your mother is going to hurt
her?”

“I don’t know,” Drew admitted. “Trish isn’t
the type she likes to kill, but my mom has always been the jealous
type. There’s also a chance she might try to use Trish to get me to
do what she wants. When my mom tried to get me to leave the mall
with her, she suggested I bring Trish with me. It’s hard to say
what she will do, but at least she doesn’t know where Trish lives.
If that changes, Trish might be in trouble. I fucked up,” Drew
said, sounding somewhere between frustrated and regretful.

Alek wanted to hit something, but he worked
hard to keep his temper under control. Oddly enough, Drew was
beating himself up about it already. “You’re sure she didn’t follow
you back?”

“Positive,” Drew said.

“I’m surprised you’re so upset about this.
You’ve always struck me as a selfish little prick,” Alek said.

Drew chuckled. “Yeah, I’m not usually
concerned about people. In fact, it’s not like I’m gonna be up all
night worrying about Trish. She’s nice to me, even when I’m at my
worst, and it would totally suck if my mom killed her because she
thought Trish was with me. Only my mom would believe a woman like
Trish would have anything to do with me.”

Alek wasn’t sure how to respond to that.
Having spent very little time around his nephew, Alek didn’t know
him well, and he was starting to feel bad about that. Maybe he
should have intervened when Drew was younger. There was a chance
Drew could have grown up semi-normal if he’d been kept away from
his mother, but it was too late to change that now. The boy was a
mess.

Drew snapped out of his moment of melancholy
and shrugged it off. “Not much I can do about my mom for now. If
she calls and mentions Trish, I’ll call you.”

“You’ll call me if your mother calls you for
any reason,” Alek insisted.

Drew gave him a cold smile. “Here’s the
thing,
Uncle
, my mom may be crazy, and she may have been one
of the worst mothers in recorded history, but she’s still my mom.
None of you assholes were there for me growing up. You all left me
with her. In her crazy fucked up way, she loves me. If she isn’t
hurting someone I care about, I don’t give a fuck. I’m sure as hell
not going to hand over the only person who was there for me most of
my life so you can execute her.”

On those words, Drew stalked out of the
house, slamming the door behind him.

Phoebe hated asking for help, especially when
she was forced to ask a man. In this case, she had to push down her
natural instincts and play the helpless female for a reason other
than luring a man to his death. She would have to remember that she
could always kill him later. A shudder of anticipation ran through
her body. It had been far too long since she’d had a satisfying
kill. Being on the run meant her kills were rushed and, much like
in sex, a quickie was only good once in a while. She loved the
anticipation as she toyed with her victim, bringing herself closer
and closer to the final climax. The image was so clear in her mind,
she could almost hear the hoarse screams of her victim.