“I wonder what kind of children she’d have,” Corbin mused, mostly to himself.
“Are you honestly suggesting we create more of those things?” Nicola demanded, her eyes locked on his. “Vampires are irresponsible and stupid, but this is beyond reckless.”
His nails dug into his palms as he struggled with his rage. Killing Nicola now would simplify matters. He’d no longer have to listen to her shrewish tirades or worry about her hiding information from him. The problem with that plan was in how to deal with the other hunters involved. Killing Nicola without dealing with the hunters would be suicide. He needed to be patient.
“I’m merely suggesting we find out if there are any variations in her genetics,” he explained. “Is she simply a breeder, or is she something more? If she’s merely a breeder, then you might be right about her being useless to us, though, I still don’t see the point in killing her.”
“As I’ve said before, she is evidence of our involvement,” Nicola ground out. “I realize your family has stayed rooted in the past, but you must have heard of genetic testing. There are tests that would show she’s related to both of us. I won’t allow that to happen. I’ll kill her as soon as we find her.”
“What if this breeder isn’t the girl we’re looking for?” Corbin demanded. “Shouldn’t we at least confirm her identity first?”
“What difference does it make?” Nicola asked in a bored tone. “We can always test her blood after she’s dead to confirm her identity. If we discover she’s not the right one, we’ll start searching again.”
“You can’t just go around killing breeders or you’ll draw attention to us,” Corbin pointed out with an exasperated sigh.
“Then perhaps the war you dreamed of will finally become a reality,” Nicola scoffed. “As I’ve already said, we’ll kill her and test her DNA after. If we’re wrong, we can ditch her body and make sure it’s found—make it look like vampires killed her. Aligning ourselves with vampires may have been a stupid mistake, but our cause isn’t. The time has come to act!”
“We don’t get to make that call,” Corbin reminded her. It was the head of each family who decided how they handled the matter. They were the ones who’d paired him with Nicola to begin with. None of this had been his choice. That might explain his sympathy for the girl. Her life had been mapped out even before her conception.
“We’re the ones hunting her,” Nicola insisted.
“At the orders of our families,” he pointed out.
“They want her dead,” Nicola reminded him.
Corbin quirked an eyebrow. “Really? They want us to kill anyone who might be our daughter without confirming it first?”
“She’s not our daughter!” Nicola shouted. “Don’t call her that.”
“I’m calling Elgin,” he told her in a cold voice. “If he says we kill the girl without confirming her identity, then we’ll do it. Or I could have him discuss this matter with the head of your family.”
If looks could kill, Nicola would have struck him dead. “We must do whatever it takes to hide the existence of the order,” she told him. “That is what our elders want. Why are you fighting this? We’re on the same side.”
Corbin regarded her coldly. “We will never be on the same side.”
Without waiting for a response, he grabbed a photo of the breeder believed to be his daughter and stalked out of the hotel room. If he didn’t get some space, he’d give in to the temptation to try to kill Nicola, and there was a good chance he’d fail. She wasn’t some weak human he could easily kill. If he wanted her dead, he needed a plan.
Chapter Six
It wasn’t often Drew was surprised by people. For the most part, he didn’t expect much from anyone. Those low expectations helped him avoid being disappointed. People were assholes—his family included. At least, that’s what he’d believed most of his life. The last couple of years, they’d been trying to prove him wrong.
“Why would you volunteer to go with me?” he asked his cousin, Isaiah—the one member of his family with good reason to hate him.
Isaiah pushed his glasses up on his nose and shrugged. “We’re family.”
Drew just stared at his cousin, waiting for more. Isaiah had used that line when he’d helped him once before, and Drew still didn’t understand Isaiah’s reasoning. Saying you were family didn’t mean shit. If family really stood by each other, his childhood wouldn’t have been so fucked up. His confusion must have shown on his face because Isaiah began speaking again. “When you first came to live with us, you always looked like you expected one of us to stab you in the back, and I don’t mean that figuratively.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to argue because old habits die hard. Admitting his fears meant revealing his weaknesses. His mother had been a scary woman, and he’d grown up fearing she’d someday turn on him. She’d tried killing his father enough times to prove she had no issues killing someone she claimed to love. “I guess that’s what happens when you’re raised by a killer.”
Isaiah nodded and placed a hand on his shoulder. It was an awkward attempt at comfort—awkward for both of them. “We all messed up by leaving you there. I could argue that I didn’t know what was going on, and it’s true. I spent too many years living in my own world, so I had no clue for a very long time. When I found out, I figured it was Roman’s job to deal with your mother. You were older, and I made excuses for why I couldn’t help. It was just easier to ignore it, especially since I didn’t know you. When you first moved out here, even though I saw you had issues, I didn’t want to get involved. You did a lot to distance yourself from everyone, and it was easier to hate you than to think about what you might have been through.”
“I’m easy to hate,” Drew admitted with a casual shrug and a slight twist of his body to get away from Isaiah’s touch. He wasn’t used to people offering him comfort, and it was making him twitchy.
“You work hard to keep people from getting close,” Isaiah stated as his hand dropped to his side.
“It’s better that way,” Drew explained.
“No, it’s not,” Isaiah told him. “Caring about people doesn’t always make you weak.”
Drew snorted. “I’ll have to take your word on that. Is this where you tell me how much you care about me?” While he sounded sarcastic, he was genuinely curious about his cousin’s answer. Saying he was helping Drew out of family loyalty was different from Isaiah saying he really gave a damn.
“I’ve got good reason to hate you,” Isaiah mused. “You made sure of that, but you’ve also done some really good things, and Phoenix loves you. Trish and Lydia also love you.”
Thoughts of Nixie brought a smile to Drew’s face. When he’d first met her, she’d gone by the name Molly and he’d believed her to be human. She’d been his only friend until she’d suddenly disappeared from his life. “Nixie brings out the best in me. As for Trish and Lydia, they just refuse to see there’s more bad than good.”
“Did you ever feel bad about that woman we killed?” Isaiah asked after a long pause. “You act like it doesn’t bother you, but you hide your emotions most of the time.”
Drew turned away from Isaiah, running a hand through his hair and sighing. This was the good reason Isaiah had to hate him. They’d brought home a woman a few years back, and she’d died. In general, feeding from a human posed no risk to the human if the vampire was responsible. He hadn’t taken too much, but she’d had a heart condition. Normal people would have felt guilty about her death, even though it had been an accident. Drew wasn’t normal, something he understood better than anyone else. He’d laughed it off and acted like a complete asshole to his cousin. Isaiah’s mental breakdown had brought out the worst in him, and his worst was quite a bit more extreme than most people’s.
“No, it didn’t bother me,” he admitted, staring out the window. “I’ll bet you’re hoping to hear I’m some nice guy who just puts up a front, but I’m not. That woman was sick, and she was miserable. As far as I’m concern
ed, we did her a favor.”
“You had no way of knowing she was sick until you saw her medical alert necklace,” Isaiah accused.
“You’re partly right,” he agreed, finally facing his cousin. They should have had this out years ago, but they’d both been avoiding the issue for their own reasons. “I didn’t know about the heart condition until after she died, but the girl was depressed and wanted to die. She told me her doctors had warned her against drinking. One way or another, she was going to end up dead. Even if we hadn’t taken her home, that might have been her last night. Who the fuck knows what would have happened if she’d left the bar on her own?”
Isaiah said nothing as he mulled over what Drew had said.
“I’m not making excuses,” Drew added, turning to meet his cousin’s eyes. “Even if I hadn’t known all that, I probably still would have acted like a dick. When I was really young, it bothered me. Killing made me feel sad and guilty. That made my mom angry—beyond angry. She’d tell me my feelings were a weakness, and the weak deserved to die. Part of the time, I was afraid she’d kill me. The rest of the time, I felt alone and isolated because I’d disappointed the only person who loved me. That’s probably why I was such a dick to you when you had your mental breakdown. In the back of my mind, I kept hearing her tell me you were weak. I kept hearing her tell me you had to toughen up or die.”
“I was weak,” Isaiah admitted quietly. “Not because I cared about what happened, but because I just went along with your method of dealing with it, even though I knew it was wrong.”
“You’re not the type to kill someone,” Drew told him “It’s one of the things I’ve discovered I like about you. It’s nice to be around someone who’s not a monster. When I met Nixie, I was drawn to her because she wasn’t a monster, and she didn’t think I was, either. For some reason, I like being around nice people.”
“You’re not a monster,” Isaiah argued, grinning when Drew gave him a skeptical look. “I’m not saying you aren’t completely fucked up. Seriously, you’re a mess, but not nearly on the level you were when I first met you or even a year ago. Maybe we’re all rubbing off on you.”
Drew snorted. “More likely, you’re getting desensitized to it. I can tell you from experience, after enough exposure, you start believing evil is normal.”
“Don’t make me tell Lydia you need another spa day,” Isaiah warned.
Drew groaned. “Why would you do that to me?”
Isaiah shrugged. “It seems I’m starting to genuinely like you, and I don’t want you to feel bad about yourself.”
Drew turned away. He still wasn’t good at these kinds of conversations, and he wanted to change the subject quickly. “I need to finish getting my stuff together, and I’m sure you need to pack up all your nifty gadgets.”
“I’m hoping I have more impressive stuff than Mason,” Isaiah admitted.
Drew just shook his head and headed up to his room. He didn’t really need to pack, but he definitely needed some time alone.
Chapter Seven
“Wake up, Talia.” The seductive male voice moved along Talia’s body, pulling her from sleep.
Sitting up in bed, she pulled the covers over her breasts. “Why am I naked?” she muttered. “I never sleep naked.”
The silhouette of a man moved forward from the shadows of her bedroom, but she wasn’t afraid. Her body ached with need. It had been a long time since she’d been with a man, and this man with his broad shoulders, narrow waist, and pale blue eyes that pierced the darkness of the room, definitely called to her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked when she recognized Drew.
“I’m here because you want me here,” he breathed out as he reached the foot of her bed. “And because I want to be here. Don’t you feel it?”
Talia nodded, unable to speak. Her reaction was insane, but that didn’t matter. A dangerous vampire was standing in her bedroom. No matter how attractive he was, she should be ready for a fight. Instead, all she could think about was the fact that he was wearing too many clothes.
“You’d like me to take this off, wouldn’t you?” he asked as his fingers moved under the edge of his shirt. It was as if he’d read her mind.
She nodded, and his lips curled into a slow smile filled with wicked promise.
“I’m going to make you scream my name so many times you’ll lose your voice,” he promised, just before he stripped off his shirt.
“Please,” she barely whispered before jerking awake to find herself alone in her bedroom.
It took some time for her mind to catch up with what was going on. The dream had been so vivid and felt so real. “What the fuck?” she muttered into the darkness.
There was no denying Drew was nice to look at. She’d always been drawn to bad boy types, and he definitely fit that description. Unlike many who believed those tempting bad boys all had hearts of gold under their rough exterior, Talia knew that wasn’t always true. That’s what drew her to them. A long-term relationship wasn’t in her future. Getting involved with people she wouldn’t develop any emotional attachment to made things easier for her.
Drew wasn’t a good guy, but he seemed more complex. There was a good side to him. He was also a vampire. There was no way she could sleep with Drew without him finding out she wasn’t a normal hunter.
The knock on her bedroom door pulled her from her thoughts, and she knew immediately who’d let himself into her apartment in the middle of the night. Many might be worried about burglars, but they wouldn’t pound on her bedroom door to wake her up.
“What are you doing here, Mason?” she called out, climbing out of bed and stalking to her bedroom door in nothing but a sleep shirt.
“I was worried about you,” Mason said through the door.
Talia blew out a frustrated breath and unlocked the door to her bedroom.
“How do you know I’m not asleep?” she demanded.
“I heard you talking to yourself,” he replied. “I was planning to sleep on your couch, but I figured I’d check on you since you’re awake. So, can I come in without being stabbed?”
His question wasn’t a joke. She’d stabbed him once when he’d snuck up on her during their teen years. Her trainer had been angry about her stabbing another hunter, even as he’d complimented her on her reaction time and scolded Mason for his poor defensive techniques. Mason hadn’t completely forgiven her for the incident.
She opened the door to find Mason standing there in well-worn gray sweats. He’d probably grabbed anything he could find and headed over to her place.
“Why are you so worried about me all of a sudden?” she asked, stalking past him toward the kitchen to make coffee. When Mason was in one of these moods, there would be no sleep for either of them until he worked through whatever was bothering him. He’d been this way when they were kids, too, and it had driven her up the wall. Now, she just went with it. She loved Mason, obsessive quirks and all.
“Dangerous people are looking for you, Talia,” he replied with an exasperated sigh. “Don’t you think that’s a good reason to be worried about you?”
“Technically, they’re looking for Shayla,” she reminded him. “I’m not saying their focus won’t shift to me, but for now, there’s no reason to worry about me because they aren’t even looking in my direction.”
“I’ve been thinking about it, and we need to tell the vampires more specifics about why Shayla’s in danger,” he began before waiting for her to answer.
Talia started the coffee, making the cheap stuff since Mason put enough sugar in it to drown out any coffee taste. “Are you going to tell me why, or is this going to be twenty questions in the middle of the night? If it is, I’m going back to bed. I don’t have the patience to drag the information out of you at this hour.”
“I’ve been feeling like an asshole for holding back so much information,” Mason admitted. “There’s also the fact that Isaiah’s joining us, and he might be able to help with computer research.”
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br /> When they’d called the vampires, agreeing to help find Shayla, all they’d mentioned was their council wanted her found. They planned to tell the vampires Shayla was in danger, but withhold what they knew about the order. Mason’s sudden turn-around surprised her.
“I’m not sure about trusting them,” Talia hedged. “Aside from the fact that we don’t know them very well, Drew isn’t the most stable person.”
“But he’s obsessed with finding Shayla,” Mason reminded her. “I guess it’s more accurate to say he’s obsessed with Shayla.”
Talia nodded. “Good point. Despite what he says about not wanting to be with her, I get the impression he believes he’s in love with her.”
“You don’t agree?” Mason asked, only sounding mildly curious as he set up his laptop on her kitchen table.
“He spent a few minutes around her when she was about to kill her brother,” Talia reminded him. “Even if I believed in love at first sight, this would be a stretch for me.”
Mason grinned at her. “Don’t tell me the romance of that situation didn’t tug at your heart strings. It’s a tale as old as time. Crazy boy meets crazy girl. They fall instantly in love.”
Talia snorted. “I suppose, if anyone is going to fall instantly in love, it would be the crazy couple. Still, I don’t think he loves her.”
“So, you do see the romance,” Mason teased.
“He strikes me as the type to become obsessed with others. Shayla is his current obsession,” she stated, watching impatiently as her ancient coffee pot did its thing. It might be slow and it might be old, but she’d never had better coffee. Even the cheap stuff she stocked for Mason would be good. “I should bring my coffee maker with me.”
Wicked Crazy Vampire Love (Psy-Vamp Book 7) Page 4