How to Elude a Vampire (VRC: Vampire Related Crimes Book 2)

by Alice Winters

  Slowly, he pulls out of me and flips me over before pushing me farther onto the bed where he straddles me and kisses me. He showers soft, gentle kisses over me as I pull him down so his bare skin is against mine. I give him another tug and he rolls onto his side so I can press against him.

  “You’re so damn addicting, Finnigan.”

  “You’re not too shabby yourself, Marcus,” I tease.

  He snorts before tucking his head against my neck and kissing the spot he’d bitten.

  “That’s good to know. Now, did I paint a better picture of the bedroom?”

  “Much better.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  FINN

  I jolt awake, horrified that I fell asleep in this hell. How could I have slept? I need to get out. I need to get away. I drag myself back to the door and the keypad that sits next to it. My body screams as I pull myself up onto my one good leg and look at the numbers. There’s no way he’ll come in and not see I was fucking with it. There’s blood smeared across it that I can’t seem to wipe away.

  What number was I at?

  Fuck.

  I know it’s useless but I can’t just lie here and die. I have to try. I have to try again and again. I can’t give up.

  I hit the numbers again and the light flashes red. “Please, please let me out,” I whisper.

  Why has this happened to me? Why can’t I get away? More than anything, I just want to leave.

  2149

  The light flashes red and I reach for it just a moment before it flashes green. Did I do it? Did I get it right?

  Before I reach for the door, it swings inward and the monster is before me, waiting for me. He’s like a dark shadow, looking inhuman even though I know it’s just a mask to cover his face.

  “Aw, doll, did you think you finally got it?” he asks as the door slams shut behind him. “Sorry.”

  I push back but the moment weight is on my leg, pain flares into it and I nearly pass out. Before I hit the ground, he catches me.

  And that’s when I force myself to focus and drive my elbow right into his face. I think he wasn’t expecting it, because he reels back.

  “You dare touch me?” he growls.

  If it weren’t for this fucking leg I would try to run but could I have even outrun him? Could I even get away?

  He grabs me by the throat and squeezes his hand, cutting the air from me. “Just be good!”

  I claw at his hand, fighting against him as my world starts to grow black and I realize that he’s going to kill me. My hands grow slack and fall to my sides. He drops me and I hit the ground on my back.

  “FUCK!” he screams. He takes a deep breath and paces the room.

  “I’m trying so fucking hard not to kill you.” He drops down, hovering over me. He breathes me in as his finger trails over my neck while I stare at him in terror. “The moment I met you, I knew I wanted you. I knew I had to have you. But everything I touch, everything I hold, I kill. I destroy. And when I realized that I didn’t want to destroy you… I realized that I needed to protect you. I needed to make you mine. So I’ve watched you closely, so closely, but I can only be good for so long. I needed you, my beautiful doll, to be good so I don’t kill you. I knew I shouldn’t have brought you here. I knew I should have just watched you. I just have this desire to kill you now that you’re mine. Oh but then I’d miss you, my sweet doll.”

  For a long moment, he just hovers above me, hands on my face, eyes closed. I’m shaking beneath his touch and I don’t know if it’s fear or pain anymore.

  “In my entire life, nothing has made me feel things until I met you. I need to protect you. I know now that I can’t keep you to myself. But I have to make you perfect first. I have to save you from what your mother did to you,” he says as his finger trails down my left arm. “I’ll fix you.”

  I shake my head. “Please. Please let me go.”

  His fingers dig into my hair as he yanks my head to the side. “JUST STOP.”

  I close my eyes as I realize that I need to be quiet. Be calm and think things through.

  “Let me make you perfect again,” he says as he picks me up and carries me over to the door where he puts the number into the keypad.

  9314

  If he’s allowed me to see that… does that mean I’m going to die?

  I jerk awake and roll over before wrapping my arm around Marcus.

  “What’s wrong?” he whispers.

  “Stupid dream. I don’t think the sleeping pills are helping.”

  He squeezes me to him. “I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. I just feel tired. It’s like no matter how hard I try to forget all of this, it won’t go away. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

  He draws his fingers over my bare back, running circles as Artie sets his head on my legs, trying to help. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “It was… it was the day that he took my arm and leg. He tried killing me. He kept trying to kill me but you could tell he was fighting not to. He almost made it seem like the only time he felt anything was watching people die, but he told me that I made him feel for the first time. And that was why he didn’t want to kill me. That he wanted to just watch me… to manipulate my life.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  I squeeze tighter onto him. “We’re not talking about him anymore. We’re not letting him rule my life. Do something sexy.”

  “Hmm…” he growls, like he’s trying to think about it.

  “That was pretty sexy.”

  He snorts. “Good. I’m glad.”

  For a while, we talk about mundane things. Stupid things. But it makes me push my fears away and focus on the man holding me to him.

  Marcus

  “I want your shirt off,” Finn says.

  “Why?” I ask as I push the rowboat into the water.

  “You’re always going on and on about being masculine and wanting to show off your body and here is the perfect opportunity.”

  “True.”

  I’m honestly surprised he chose to do this because he has to take his leg off in case he falls into the water. That would be an extremely expensive mistake and I’m pretty sure Watson would just give up at that point.

  But he’s been better recently, so maybe he’s starting to trust me when I tell him that I don’t look at him any differently. He gets into the rowboat before taking his leg off and handing it to me.

  “How about I put this inside?” I suggest.

  “You’ll make the dogs sad again. Didn’t you hear their screams of anguish when we left them inside? If only you’d have let me bring them.”

  “Yes, because sticking an Irish wolfhound in a rickety and tiny rowboat sounds intelligent,” I say as I continue to hold Finn’s leg.

  “Just toss it into the grass,” he says.

  “Yes, I’m going to just toss this expensive piece of equipment into the grass.” This kid.

  I rush it inside and am back within a minute, but he’s already used an oar to push the boat off the shore and out into the water.

  “Marcus, come on out! You shouldn’t get your clothes wet, so you need to take them off,” he says.

  I move fast enough that I don’t have to take anything off as I sit down in the boat and face my very unimpressed partner.

  “That wasn’t sexy! You just pitter-pattered too fast,” he complains as I grab the oars and start rowing us out into the water.

  “Shirt off! Shirt off!”

  “You want me to burn?”

  “It’s not even sunny! Don’t be dramatic! You’ll be fine.” He’s giving me one of those infectious grins that makes me weak.

  I stop rowing as I grab the bottom of my shirt and pull it over my head before tossing it on top of his head.

  He laughs as he pulls the shirt off his head and whistles. “Hot damn. Look at that pale chest! It’s blinding! My eyes hurt looking at you!”

  Finn shields his face as I glare at him and grab for my shirt.

  “No!
Don’t shield your ghost chest. I like it,” he purrs before shoving my shirt under his ass so I can’t get it without pushing him off his seat. “I would like to row.”

  “You… want to row?” I’m skeptical about this, but I also know that when faced with Finn you give him anything he wants. So I let go of the oars that are hooked onto the side of the boat and let him take over.

  “You don’t think I can do it, do you?” he asks. I’m now positive he’d said it as a joke and just wanted to complain when I said something or didn’t hand them over. Well… joke’s on him.

  I lean back and watch him. “I said nothing like that.”

  He seems a bit uncertain, but grabs the oar and starts rowing. Seeing as he only has one hand, we just start going in a circle. I’m positive he’s waiting for me to say something, but I just give him a thumbs up.

  “You’re doing amazing, babe,” I say.

  “Thanks!” he says as we continue circling.

  I want to ask if he’s aware that we could sort of go forward if he switches the direction of the oar each time, but then I realize that if Finn wants to be obstinate, I’ll let him be obstinate.

  “Are you having fun?” Finn asks.

  “So much fun.”

  He snorts as he stops. “Sit next to me and you grab the left oar.”

  I carefully move to the seat next to him before taking the other oar. “I’m… surprised you gave in.”

  “I was getting a little seasick going in a circle for so long,” he admits, which makes me laugh. “You’re not allowed to laugh. Your job is to be amazed at everything I’m doing no matter how awful I am at it.”

  I raise an eyebrow as I look at him. “Hell no. I’ll tell you if you suck at something,” I say as I row. Clearly, I’m rowing faster or harder than him because we start going to the right quickly.

  He doesn’t seem to mind because he leans into me. “Can we just float out here forever?”

  “I think you’d get hungry.”

  “You wouldn’t?” he teases.

  “Well… no, I have a human I can chew on as I please.”

  He grins as he pretends to bite me. “Same here. Maybe vampire is a delicacy.”

  “I do like it when you nibble on me,” I say.

  “Good.” He takes a deep breath and lays his head against me. “I can do this. I know… I know I was being obstinate and selfish wanting to fight against him to have the life I desire. But I know I need to just be happy with what I have. I’m alive, I’m healthy, I have a wonderful family, but most of all, I have you. And that makes me very happy. Maybe someday we can escape from him, but right now, it’s clear that it’s best for us to just do what he wants.”

  While I know it’s hard for both of us to agree that he has to live like this, I know he’s right. I need to stop getting hung up on what I can’t do for him and focus on what I can do.

  I hook my arm around him and pull him into me before kissing the top of his head. “I’m glad. I’m grateful that we can do things like this. Even if it’s not ideal, it’s more than I ever expected I’d have with someone else.”

  As we float around on the calm water, I try to let everything negative go and focus only on the here and now. Right now, I have Finn beside me. He’s happy, he’s healthy, and he’s mine.

  And that will have to be enough.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  FINN

  “Do you want to go to the mall with me?” Orin asks. “I need to get your sister something for her birthday.”

  I stare at him.

  He narrows his eyes. “What?”

  “Shit. I forgot about her birthday! Imagine the hell I’d have to hear if I hadn’t gotten her anything!”

  Orin starts laughing as he waves at me. “Come on, then. Let’s go suffer together. She’s so hard to shop for, and she likes ‘surprises.’ Why can’t she surprise me by telling me what she wants so I can just buy it for her without having to be tortured into spending hours hunting?”

  “We could just get her like a vacuum. It’d be a surprise and I bet she’d tell you what she wants next year,” I say.

  Orin snickers as I close my laptop and head toward the door to slip my shoes on. As I walk, I pull up my phone to text Marcus.

  Me: I’m going to the mall with Orin to buy Aria something for her birthday.

  Marcus: And I give a shit, why?

  Clearly, this is not Marcus, and there’s only one other sassy asshole that works there.

  Me: Alexei, I’ll hunt your ass down and tie you to a chair and invite Claude to watch you.

  Marcus: Don’t worry, I got rid of him. But I showed him your message first. This is what I get for asking him to reply when my hands are full. Be careful. Get her something horribly annoying like she did for you.

  Me: You don’t like the talking fish?

  Marcus: You don’t either.

  I get into the car and look over at Orin. “What are you thinking?”

  He shrugs. “I don’t even know.”

  “What about a blow-up boyfriend? I bet you couldn’t scare one of those off. Or you know, like the stuffed pillow boyfriend? Those would probably be able to handle you.”

  “I didn’t mean to scare off the other! Do you get how it was supposed to be a joke? I thought he’d laugh! Aria raves about his sense of humor!”

  “I thought it was hilarious when he passed out on the floor,” I say as my phone beeps. I look down, expecting it to be Marcus or Karsyn, but I’m ecstatic when I see it’s Watson. “My arm!”

  Orin quickly looks at me. “Why are you shouting?”

  “Watson’s done with my arm. We’re like a minute away, I need it now!”

  “Fine,” he says as he takes the next left. “Just be agreeable. When he tells you not to abuse it, listen so I don’t have to wait while he wastes an hour explaining why you shouldn’t be reckless.”

  I stare at Orin like I’ve never met the man and have no idea what he’s talking about. “Are you… are you talking about me? Surely, you’re not. I know nothing. I am innocent and perfect.”

  He doesn’t seem convinced in the slightest. “I know when you were little you were cute and thought you could get away with things but you’re old now. It just doesn’t work anymore.”

  I glare at him as he pulls into the driveway. “You’re old now too.”

  “I was always old. I’m going to make a phone call while you run and grab your arm,” he says.

  “You calling that sex line again? I thought we talked about this.”

  “Get out. You’re all giddy because you’re getting your arm and it’s just obnoxious.”

  I snort and slip through the door before rushing up to the front door. I knock once before I push the door open. I’m sure Watson’s already heard me with his supersonic hearing, but I still call out to him.

  “Watson, I’m here!” I shout.

  My phone rings in my hand, so I accept the call.

  “Watson, where are you?”

  “Hey, I take it you’re a little eager?” Watson asks.

  “I am.”

  “Give me a few minutes. I’m not even home yet.”

  “Can I put it on and leave before you give me The Talk?” I ask as I head into the medical room.

  “Have patience!”

  My eyes lock on to my beauty lying on the counter. “I see her! She’s beautiful.” I rush over and pick my arm up. How I’ve lived three weeks without her, I’ll never know. It was the most dreadful three weeks.

  “That’s fine. Do whatever. But you’re still not getting out of The Talk,” he warns.

  “Fine, fine,” I say before hanging up. I put my arm on then marvel at how wonderful it feels after having been separated for three weeks.

  My phone beeps and when I look down at it, I notice it’s now Brooks.

  What’s he want?

  “Hello?” I answer.

  “Finn, I need to talk to you.”

  “We can talk,” I say as I wander toward the kitchen to see i
f Charlie is here. I still haven’t had the chance to thank her besides through text.

  “No, I want to talk to you in person.”

  “Okay, I’m with Orin at the moment; we’re headed to the mall. Do you need him to drop me at the department? Or is it okay if we talk later? Marcus could pick me up.”

  “No, I want to talk to you alone, without Orin or Marcus. Have Orin drop you off at the station.”

  “Okay… is something wrong?” I ask, confused on why he’s so adamant about this.

  “Not at all. I’ll see you then. Bye.”

  “Bye,” I say, confused about what he wants. Then I call out, “Charlie?”

  Since I’m still holding my phone, I decide to call her. When I hear her phone start ringing toward the back of the house, I follow the noise. It’s coming from her bedroom, so I knock on the door. While she’d texted me to ask how Artie’s doing, I haven’t seen her since she’d taken care of him, which I thought was strange if she was still staying with Watson. I push the door open and look into the bedroom to see that the bed is made and the room is neat. Her clothes and bag are still by the dresser, so she must not have left yet.

  I glance over at the desk where her phone is sitting, plugged into a charger. As I reach for it, I notice something sitting next to it.

  A small dog keychain.

  The same one my sister had given me. The same one I’d been fiddling with in the car when the accident happened. I never saw it again after the accident. I remember even asking about it. So why would Charlie have this? Did I come in with it and just don’t remember? I know she was working with Watson as an apprentice around the time of the accident, so she could have come across it then, I suppose.

  I just… don’t remember it being on me after the car accident.

  Slowly, I set the toy down before backing away from the room. I’ll just have to ask Watson or Charlie. I hear a noise and jump, startled, before looking down. It came from the basement, telling me that Charlie must be down there.