“But here we are. That there’s a young girl involved makes me want to wretch. It makes me want to hunt that crazy slut down and set her ablaze while I roast marshmallows over her. So the answer is yes, this has to do with Clay. I like him. I like him even though he’s cranky and funny all at the same time. He’s also impatient and impossible to talk to, and I know very little about him. But I think now that I know about Naomi, now that I know the lengths he’s gone to in protecting his little girl—I like him a whole lot more. But not even Clay’s immortality is as important to me as Naomi’s.”
Wanda bit her bottom lip, her eyes full. “If I could take this away, I would. You know that, right? You know I’ll do whatever I can to protect you. I saw this coming. I saw how googly-eyed you were over him every time he walked into a room, but I just kept telling myself it was your overactive hormones, and that he was the best option to protect you from things I know next to nothing about. This isn’t how I’d want you—anyone—to begin a relationship, Case. Not with this kind of cloud hanging over it.”
Casey swallowed hard. “Well, it isn’t the way I would have liked to do it, either. Match.com doesn’t look like as much of a ridiculous long shot as it once did. And we haven’t started a relationship. We slept together. I’m not so far gone that I don’t know where that leaves me, especially with a guy who hasn’t had sex in centuries. I know the score. But you know, at first I thought my instant, almost uncontrollable attraction to Clay was based solely on this freaky transference thing with Hildegard, but not anymore. My hormones might be in an uproar because of it—magnified—but the rest is all me. Hildegard doesn’t want Clay for anything else but the life he gives her on this plane. She never wanted him. And from the sexual escapades she’s had, she’d go on living the way she has forever. She’s just a snake—a coldhearted, vain, bottom-feeder—and if there’s something I can do to prevent her from having what she wants, I’m just in. Period.”
Wanda squeezed her hand hard, her face shaded with a mixture of fear and sympathy. “You’re falling, Casey. Maybe it hasn’t happened yet, not totally, but you’re falling.”
“Maybe so. I can’t seem to stop it. But I’m not falling anywhere until I break Clay’s legs. Oh, and maybe an arm just because.”
Wanda pulled her close with a shaky whisper. “Please, please be careful, Case. Please. This is the most time we’ve spent together in years, and I don’t want to give that up because you’ve gone and gotten yourself dead.”
Casey pinched her cheek in response. “Dead would suck after all this, huh?” She laughed, pushing her way out the door and storming back to the apartment.
She didn’t stop storming until she reached the bedroom where Mr. Vampire slept the sleep of the comatose. A glance at the clock told her he wouldn’t be awake for several hours.
But that was okay.
It gave her time to plan his demise.
CHAPTER 16
“Look who’s awake,” Casey chirped from the couch.
Clay smiled. Smiled. Funny that. “Hey,” he mumbled back, sleep making his tone sexy-gruff. He came to stand in front of her and pressed a hand to her forehead. “How ya feelin’?”
“I feel great. Superb. Fantastic.”
His eyes instantly became leery. “Do I detect sarcasm?”
“Do you?”
“I think I do.”
“Huh.” She shrugged with a casual shift of her shoulders.
“Huh. That’s it? No way. I just know you have something on your mind.”
“Me? Whatever could be on my mind?”
“Spill.”
“Like you spill?”
“Casey.”
She mocked his tone. “Clay.”
“Clearly there’s a bug up your ass.”
“Yeah, it’s called my pending death.”
“That won’t happen. I’ve said it at least ten times.”
“Right. Because you’re not going to allow it. Yep, you’ve told me that like you have some say in it.”
“So we’re back to angry?”
“Nope.”
“Then where are we?”
“Right here on the couch.” She patted the buttery-soft leather.
“Casey—knock it the fuck off and speak your piece.”
“Are you back to angry?”
“I’m losing my patience.”
“This is me all surprised.”
“Okay, so in an effort to try and get somewhere, I’ll concede I can be quick to snap. I’m sorry. Are we all better now?”
“We were never not better.”
“Where are we going with this?”
“I dunno, Clay, why don’t you tell me? Oh, wait. How ’bout you don’t tell me. Because you know, you’ve marketed the corner on not telling me stuff.”
“What am I missing?”
“I think the question should be what am I missing?”
“If you keep it up, I know what you won’t be missing.”
“What’s that?”
His grin turned playful. “A good spanking.”
But that wouldn’t work. She wasn’t going to be wooed by a rare gem of a smile from him. Not likely. “Yeah. I bet you’re good at those. I mean, if you’re into that kind of punishment.You’ve had lots and lots of practice.” Emphasis on lots.
“And you would know this, how?”
“I can tell you for sure, I wouldn’t know it from you.”
“So who do you know it from?”
“Listen to your voice mail today?”
He grinned again. “Nope. I rushed right out here to see how you were feeling when I realized you weren’t in bed with me. Which, if I have any say in the matter, is a much better place to be together than the couch. But the couch’ll work.” He slid closer to her, letting his eyes take on a suggestive slant.
She used her hands on his naked chest to brace herself and slide back. “Then I think maybe you’d better hurry up and check your messages. I’ll wait.” She pointed to the empty space between them. “Right here.”
“I assume there’s a point to all this?”
“Assume all you like. It’s what our relationship was founded on. Assumptions. Mine. Because that’s all I have to form any kind of opinion on anything where you’re concerned.”
He grunted, heaving himself off the couch and picking up his phone from the kitchen table with a fast and angry hand. He flipped it open and pressed some numbers, slapping the phone near his ear and shooting her one of those looks.
Casey watched as his face went from total aggravation with her to an “aha” moment.
Clay closed the phone, throwing it on the table. He hooked his thumbs in the loopholes of his jeans, rolling his head from side to side. “So you know.”
“Uh, yeah. I know.”
“We’re back in the bad place, I take it?”
“See, here’s the thing, Clay. I don’t know that we ever really left the bad place. Just because we cranked each other doesn’t mean we left entirely. It just means we found some relief from a bad situation temporarily. The bad place won’t go away because we yanked some covers up over our heads. Now, I’ve had a few hours to think about this. In the beginning, when Greg told me, I was pretty steeped. While you slept, and I simmered, the anger came in waves—sort of short and spiky, coming and going, coming and going. Now that you’re awake, I can safely say, it’s returned—full throttle. In fact, it’s all I can do not to stay right where I am versus get off this couch and clock you in the head. You lied to me.”
“No—”
“Psst! Quiet.” The moment her fingers made the motion was the moment Clay’s lips stopped moving. As though someone had stolen his voice and paralyzed his mouth.
Their eyes went wide simultaneously, and then his narrowed—at her.
Oh, shit. She had the ability to just think him quiet and it happened?
Niiiiice.
Her grin became cocky when he gave her his best “fear me” look. “Well, Mr. Gunnersson, lookie- loo. Now
that I have your full, uninterrupted attention, listen up! Don’t feed me the bullshit about how you didn’t lie, and it was just that you just didn’t tell me. That’s lying by omission. You blow chunks for not shooting straight with me. I asked you—a lot. You said nothing—a lot. You have a little girl, Clay. A little girl who could be hurt for an eternity—no exaggeration—and yet you chose to keep that from me? What. The. Fuck. Is. Wrong. With. You?”
Oh, wait. He couldn’t answer that if he had no voice, could he?
Bumma.
But as swiftly as it had disappeared, it returned.
Eek.
Yet instead of turning on her with his usual anger or even denials, he simply said, “It ups the ante, Casey. I didn’t tell you because it isn’t your problem. It’s my fault you and my daughter are where you are. And don’t ever do that again.” He pointed to his lips.
“No, it’s Hildegard’s fault, Clay.You had no idea Naomi existed until after you were turned. And I didn’t mean to—it just happened,” she defended. “But I won’t hesitate to do it again if you don’t shoot straight with me.” She held her fingers together in a threatening gesture.
Clay ran a hand over his hair, ruffling it. “While it’s true I didn’t know Naomi had survived, I did involve you in something much bigger than just the initial forced mating. Telling you about Naomi only added to the pressure you’re already faced with if Hildegard feeds from me.”
“She’s bonded to Hildegard. Do you have any idea how much I want to scratch that bitch’s eyeballs out for doing something so heinous to a child?”
His jaw hardened and twitched. “I think I get it.”
“Crap, I’m sorry. Of course you do. But don’t you think telling me you had a daughter involved in this was the right thing to do? That if I did manage to take that blond wing nut on, I wasn’t just fighting for my own immortality, but Naomi’s, too? Do you have any idea how scared I am for her? She’s fifteen. Jesus, she should be going to school dances, dating boys that are all wrong for her, but instead there are some goddamn dark things going on that she has absolutely no idea about.”
His chin lifted, his dark eyes swirling with an emotion that could only be attributed to a parent, he said, “You’re a helluva good person, Casey.”
“What?”
“That you’re more worried for Naomi than yourself speaks volumes.”
“Forget that! Just forget about me entirely and focus on Naomi and what we can do to fix this. We have to find a way. I’ll be fucked and feathered if I’ll sit back and just let this happen. And whether you like it or not, I’m going to do whatever I can to stop it.”
Silence ensued while Clay stared at her.
When he finally spoke, he said, “You know what I regret?”
“I can’t imagine the list.”
“I regret not having met you sooner. I would have asked you out, Casey, if I were free to do it.”
Her eyes went wide. “Wow. Is that a diversion tactic?”
“Nope. It’s just the truth.”
“And why is that? I’m definitely not the kind of woman you seem like you’d be attracted to.” There. She’d said it. Ball was in his court.
“How would you know what or whom I’m attracted to? Talk about assumptions,” he teased. “You’re just different.You’re wholesome and smart.”
“Wholesome? Is there any less attractive word? I just don’t see you as the wholesome type.”
“Then maybe you don’t see me.”
Deep. Maybe not. But she’d never in a million years think a man like Clay would want someone as boring as her. There was nothing glitzy or glamorous about her, exciting or worldly. She was solid, and safe. Bookish and boooring. Yet she couldn’t help but ask, “So what brought that on? Is this, like, my deathbed confession?”
His face went deadpan when he yanked her up off the couch and pulled her to him in a hard embrace. “Don’t even joke about that. No matter what it takes, I won’t let you be hurt. And what brought that on was the truth. You wanted more of that from me, and I figure if we’re going to be mated for an eternity, I should tell you the truth. The truth is I would have made some serious moves on you.”
Butterflies swirled in her stomach. “Reaaaalllly? Would you have invited me for a ride on your Viking ship?”
He gave her a mockingly stern grin. “Big-time. I might have even let you wear my helmet.”
“Omigod—with the horns and everything?”
“No self-respecting Viking had horns on his helmet. That’s just a recipe for disaster. Look, in all seriousness, I didn’t tell you about Naomi because I knew you’d feel this way. I knew you’d want to help her. This problem, that wasn’t nearly as shitty as it’s become, just kept getting worse. Every time I turned around, you got in deeper, through no fault of your own. Naomi’s predicament just added more stress. If it was just about Hildegard and me, I’d have done myself in a long time ago, but the fuck I’ll allow her to hurt my little girl.”
“I would have done the same, if it makes any difference to you.” She let her head rest on his shoulder before asking, “What’s Naomi like? I know in human years she’s fifteen. That’s a tough age.”
“Hah! If you only knew. She’s been sullen and moody and pouting for close to a hundred years now. It got worse when stereos were invented and she could tune me out, and now with the Internet and all the pitfalls of this day and age, it’s not getting any easier. I keep praying this stage will end, like most parents, I guess, but when people say it feels like it’ll never end, they really should have my kid.”
She laughed. No truer words. “What was her mother like?”
“She was a good woman—we weren’t married long before we conceived Naomi. We were young, very much in love.”
“And Naomi never knew her?”
“She was just an infant when her mother was killed, and when I thought she’d been killed, too.”
“Is it hard on her? Being a vampire? I mean, there can’t be a lot of kids out there who stay fifteen for a hundred years.”
“There are very few, but this is the life she’s always known. She knows there are others who’re different, and she’s schooled in the ways of humans as well as vampires. She also very bright and very cagey. She wants to date and do all the things girls her age want to do. She’s like trying to corral twenty cats.”
“Oh, I bet that goes over big with you, Mr. I Won’t Allow It.”
“True enough. But I’m not just protective of her because she’s fifteen. I’m protective of her because she lives with Hildegard lurking in the background. Though to her credit, and admitting this is like a shot to my gut, Hildegard has so far left Naomi alone.”
“So where does Naomi live?”
“In my house—Staten Island. She’s like every other teenager for the most part. She has a few friends who’re just like her, and even a couple of human ones. She’s got a fresh mouth, a chip on her shoulder the size of Gibraltar, and even with all that, she’s turning into a stunning young woman, if I do say so myself, and she can wrap me around her little finger like no one else.”
“This is a whole new side to you, Clayton Gunnersson. I think I need time to absorb this. I’m overwhelmed with warm fuzzies on your behalf and quite frankly, it’s freaking me out.” She grinned.
Clay’s phone rang again, and this time, he didn’t hide the face of it.
“Naomi?” she asked with a smile filled with relief that the phone calls were about his daughter, not some long-lost lover.
He shook his head in the negative before traipsing to the kitchen to dig through the fridge for a pint of blood, she was sure.
And for the moment, she was going to just revel in the notion that Clay truly was attracted to her—that given a chance without the hindrance of Hildegard, he’d have asked her out—maybe to a blood drive. . . .
And then she heard Clay’s words, knowing full well he didn’t think she could.
“I told you no, goddamn it, Greg, and you pass that
on to the others, too. Under no circumstances will I let you all risk shunning—possibly losing your lives over my problems.You know damned well what could happen, and I’m not dragging the rest of you down with me. Period.”
The high of Clay’s earlier words slammed to the ground. There was no hiding from the hopelessness of this—there was no help without the risk of more than just her and Naomi being hurt. Her sister . . . she couldn’t let Wanda jump into the middle of this when she’d just gotten her life back. When she had Heath and the happiness she so deserved. Not to mention the other casualties involved.
Oh, God.
Thus ended the warm, glowing, reveling part of her day.
CHAPTER 17
“Why do I have to stay hidden?”
“Because if Hildegard finds you, she’ll kill you—and though you have eternal life—there are ways to take you out, and Hildegard knows them all. I won’t—”
Casey rolled her eyes at Clay. “Allow it. I know. So I’m supposed to sit around and wait while everyone else fights my battle for me.”
“Our battle, Casey. And in truth—mine. You should have never been involved. So yeah, you’re going to behave, stay put, and wait for me to come get you. Greg and the others will handle Hildegard.” He spoke the words, but he didn’t look her directly in the eye.
“I bet I could take her.”
“I bet you could. But here’s the thing—your powers are new, your control is flaky—when one goes into battle, they should make sure their battle gear’s in working order. Take it from a former Viking.”
“Okay, so run the plan past me once more. Greg and the others are coming here to lay in wait for Hildegard while you sleep. Naomi’s with people you know can protect her. I’m going to be at some unknown destination, heavily guarded, while everyone else does all the grunt work. I wait there until Hildegard’s kaput, someone comes and gets me to feed from you—which is still a hazy affair.” She winced. The feeding thing still made her dizzy.
Clay’s smile softened, making the lines around his eyes crinkle. “It’s not a big deal. I know the idea of drinking my blood makes you want to, what was it again?”
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