Ravenous

by Forrest, V. K.

  “You’re up early,” he called. “Been to Mass? I missed you at the eight o’clock.”

  She stuck out her tongue. She was still at that rebellious place in her life when she blamed God for all her woes and gave Him no credit for the good things. To Liam’s knowledge, she hadn’t attended Mass since she was reborn. “Maybe I was out late and that’s why I didn’t make Mass. Maybe I’m just getting in.”

  He raised an eyebrow and she dropped into the kitchen chair vacated by Corrato. “Okay, so I was home by eleven last night. But I could stay out all night if I wanted.” She leaned back, looking every bit the sulky teenager. “I’m a wisewoman. I have a lot of power. People should respect me. Fear me.”

  He smiled to himself. He didn’t know what was going on with Kaleigh, but it was obviously important to her. “So what’s up with my mom’s house?”

  “Pretty much cleaned. They sucked up the water in the carpet with this big vacuum and then they sprayed something to make it not stink. I think they’ve got big fans blowing in there now.”

  “Some of the hardwood was messed up,” he intoned.

  She exhaled as if it greatly annoyed her to go on. “Katy knows this guy whose dad has a lumber store. He lays down wood floors on weekends or something and they say they can replace the boards and make it, like, all match.”

  “Katy, huh? So she was one of the perpetrators.”

  Kaleigh frowned. “I told you I’d take care of the mess. I didn’t tell you I’d squeal on my friends.”

  He smiled to himself. It was amazing how she could be so bright, so gifted, so mature at one moment, and then this in the next. “So what was going on last night? At the dance. You and Rob fighting?”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  He watched a squirrel grab an acorn and run up a tree across the street. “And yet you’re here.”

  “Kaleigh. Good to see you.”

  The teen sat up a little straighter when she saw Mai in the doorway. “Hey,” she called. “What are you doing?”

  “Let’s see”—Mai glanced over her shoulder—“inventorying a set of post–World War I china made in Poland that looks like it has place settings for twenty-four.” She frowned and looked at Liam. “Who has twenty-three people to dinner?”

  He shrugged. “Must have been a good deal.”

  “Must have,” Mai agreed.

  Liam glanced over his shoulder at her. She looked so cute this morning, wearing her jeans and one of his black T-shirts. She wore a red bandanna around her head to keep the dust out of her hair. “Your dad okay?”

  “Sure. He’s upstairs watching TV now. Why wouldn’t he be?” Her face immediately darkened and she looked up and down the street expectantly. “Everything okay? I thought it would be safe for him to sit out here.”

  “It’s fine. He’s fine out here. I should just find him a better chair.”

  Kaleigh got up. “Yeah, because a kitchen chair on the sidewalk in front of your shop—lame.” She walked over to Mai, pushing back her hoodie. “So . . . want some help or something? With the dishes? I’m not too clumsy.”

  Mai smiled, stepping back to let her through the door. “That would be great!”

  And Liam was alone again.

  Chapter 15

  “So what were you and Kaleigh talking about today?”

  Liam stood next to Mai at the kitchen sink, helping her with the dishes. Kaleigh had ended up staying all day, aiding Mai in her quest to organize his shop. The teen even stayed for dinner.

  Tonight Mai had made baked ziti. Liam was going to have to start adding an extra mile to his run every morning or he would be out of shape by the time he got out of here.

  The TV was on in the other room and Kaleigh and Corrato were watching the Cartoon Network. Liam had had the cable turned on Friday and borrowed his mom’s TV. If the old man got pleasure from watching TV, it seemed a shame that he shouldn’t have some decent choices.

  “I don’t know.” Mai shrugged and handed him a plate.

  Liam trusted Kaleigh not to say anything to Mai that would give her, or Liam, or the town away, but it had still made him nervous to see the two of them with their heads together, talking all day. Laughing. They couldn’t possibly have been talking about him all that time, could they? “You don’t know?” he pressed, drying the plate with a new hand towel that had mysteriously appeared in a kitchen drawer.

  “I don’t know. Girl stuff.” She glanced down the hall, then back at Liam. “You and my dad. What did you talk about this morning? He seemed pretty miffed.”

  “Boy stuff.”

  She frowned and lowered her voice. “Diamond boy stuff? Mafioso boy stuff?”

  “Something like that.” He set the dry plate down and took another wet one from her.

  “And did you get any response out of him?”

  “Not the kind I was hoping for.” Liam rubbed one side of the plate dry, then flipped it over. “But he knows something. Not sure I can get it out of him, but he knows more than he’s saying.”

  “You think my uncle really stole diamonds?”

  She still sounded as if she couldn’t quite believe it, but in her world, it probably was pretty unbelievable. Liam, on the other hand, spent lifetimes among criminals. He knew the full extent of the possibilities of mankind’s illegal activity, as well as their depravities.

  “All the evidence points to that.”

  “But would he keep them all these years? Wouldn’t he have sold them?”

  “Maybe, but maybe not. Maybe he was afraid to sell them, afraid the Weasel would find out, and he was just waiting to see what happened. A lot of times guys never make it out of prison. The Weasel dies or is killed in prison, and Donato is home free.” He turned the fact over in his mind. “Or maybe he didn’t steal the diamonds for the money.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Maybe Donato stole them to get back at the Weasel for something. To hurt him.”

  “And my dad knows something about all this?”

  “I don’t know just yet. Your father is a hard nut to crack, but I think he’ll come clean eventually.”

  She frowned. “You can’t be mean to him, Liam. No matter what.”

  He looked at her. “Mean to him? Mai, I would never do that.” He tried not to think of all the things he had done over the years that were far worse than bullying an old man. “What kind of guy do you think I am?”

  She put a wet hand on his chest and he felt his heart soften. Her touch made him want to protect her, at any cost. What was amazing was that her touch didn’t make him want her blood. Not too much, at least.

  “What kind of a guy are you?” she asked softly. “I mean, let’s be honest. I can guess by how you’ve treated us, but I don’t know for sure.”

  He took her wet hand, brought it to his lips as if she were a fair maiden, and kissed it. “If it’s any consolation, I’m not sure I really know what kind of man I am, either. But I do know that I wouldn’t hurt your dad, or you.”

  “I know you wouldn’t.” She held his gaze a second longer and then pulled away. “So what do I do now? About this Weasel guy? What if Uncle Donato did steal his diamonds? What if they’re in a safe-deposit box or something? I guess it’s a possibility. My uncle was a pretty private guy.” She gave a little laugh. “Which makes sense in light of the whole mafia thing.” She shook her head. “It’s still so hard to believe.”

  “You don’t do anything right now, except stay here.”

  “And unload boxes.”

  He smiled, wiping water up off the counter with the dish towel. “Except unload boxes and get my store organized. But you and I need to go to your house and look around your uncle’s room. See if there’s any clues to this previous life he led. I’m trying to learn what I can about him, trying to find out if this beef the Weasel had with your uncle is genuine. We’ll go from there.”

  She pulled the plug from the drain and watched the water go down the sink. “I
’d give them back, you know. The diamonds. If I had them.”

  He nodded. “Sure. The problem is, guys like this, sometimes that’s not enough. Sometimes they want to eliminate their trail.”

  “So my father could still be in danger, even if we found the diamonds and returned them?”

  He saw no reason to sugarcoat her situation. He wasn’t a sugarcoating kind of guy. “Both of you could be in danger. It’s very possible.”

  Tears suddenly filled her eyes, taking him completely off-guard. He hadn’t expected that. Not here, now, over this. She hadn’t even cried the night her uncle was murdered and was lying on her floor in a pool of blood. Mai was a tough chick.

  “Hey,” he whispered. Not really knowing what to say, he pulled her into his arms and held her tightly for a minute. She took a deep breath, then exhaled, and he felt her relax. She lifted up on her toes, gave him a quick kiss, and stepped back. She leaned against the sink.

  Kaleigh laughed in the other room. They were watching Scooby-Doo, of all things. Liam recognized the canine detective’s voice.

  “She kind of wanted my advice,” Mai said softly, nodding in Kaleigh’s direction.

  “What?”

  “Kaleigh,” Mai whispered. “You asked me what we talked about. I’m telling you. She kind of wanted my advice.”

  He glanced in the direction of the living room. Talking about Kaleigh, near Kaleigh was dangerous. Even thinking about her was dangerous. She was getting too good at reading minds.

  He slid the stack of clean plates onto a shelf in the cupboard, making a little noise, trying to lull the teen into thinking they were still just cleaning up after dinner. “About what?” he asked.

  “Sex,” Mai whispered. She walked to the table and wiped it down with a dishcloth. Also new.

  Liam hadn’t known he even had kitchen linens downstairs. What had ever possessed him to buy linens? “Sex?” he asked, trying to keep his voice down.

  “Well, she is almost eighteen years old. She’s been dating the same boy for two years.”

  More like fifteen hundred years, he thought. “What . . . what kind of advice was she looking for?”

  Mai pushed in one of the chairs. “I probably shouldn’t say. It was a private conversation.”

  He gave her a look that told her that wasn’t an acceptable response.

  She frowned, walking back to the sink to rinse the dishcloth. “I think he’s pressuring her to have sex.”

  “What?” he blurted.

  She glanced in the direction of the living room and shot him a look. “She’ll hear you,” she whispered harshly.

  He exhaled, getting more aggravated by the second. What the hell was wrong with Kaleigh, talking about something like that with Mai? Vampire sex was no one’s business, certainly not a human’s. Kaleigh shouldn’t have been talking to Mai at all. Mai was his human.

  The minute that thought went through his head, he knew it wasn’t right on way too many levels. Mai wasn’t his. She didn’t belong to anyone. There couldn’t be a relationship here. Even if she wanted to be his, she couldn’t be. She knew it, even if she didn’t know why, and he sure as hell knew it.

  This was all making him crazy. This crazy little town. The predicament he’d gotten himself into with Mai and Corrato. If only the Council would get the hell on with it, have his hearing, and let him go back to work. He needed to return to the world he knew, with rules he understood.

  He chose his next words carefully. “So . . . what kind of advice did you give her?”

  Frankly, Liam was a little surprised Kaleigh and Rob hadn’t already had sex. They were life partners. They had been husband and wife before and would be husband and wife again. Of course, the sept strictly prohibited sex between vampires before they reached twenty-one years of age. Before then, they weren’t always able to control their bloodlust during sex. Even with consensual vampires, things could get out of hand. A vampire drained of too much blood could become very ill and help had to be called in; it was an embarrassment he had suffered or caused on more than one occasion. The other problem with sex too soon after rebirth was that the lines between whom it was okay to have sex with and whom it wasn’t, namely humans, were easily blurred; it was just easier to say no sex at all was permitted. Adult sept members agreed that the rules were good ones and should be enforced, but teens were teens and they didn’t always follow the rules.

  “Mai, what did you tell her?” he repeated.

  “I told her she should talk to her mother.”

  He leaned against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest. “How’d that go over?”

  “Not so well.” She smiled mischievously.

  “So . . . then?” ”

  Mai took her time folding the dishcloth, then laid it over the kitchen faucet. “So then I gave her my opinion as a woman.”

  “Which was?”

  “Which was and is none of your business,” she said.

  He grabbed her arm and pulled her roughly to him, playfully. For the most part. “None of my business?”

  She laughed, struggling against his hold. “None of your damn business.” She giggled, not seeming to mind that he was being a little rough. “That’s why they call it girl talk, because boys aren’t invited.”

  “I’m not invited?” He nuzzled her neck. She smelled so good, femininely musky and sweet at the same time. “Is that right?” he teased. “Not invited, am I?”

  He felt her pulse against his lips and couldn’t help wondering what she would say if he told her the truth about him. About how he wanted to bite her, to suck her sweet, hot blood . . . swallow it. How he wanted to throw her down on the kitchen floor right this minute and fuck her. Drink her blood and fuck her.

  He had a feeling it wouldn’t go over all that well. It usually didn’t.

  Liam kissed her mouth hard. With tongue. Then he let her go, leaving her breathless. “Dog been out lately?”

  “What?” She looked almost dazed. He had that effect on women when he kissed them. Especially HFs. He wasn’t exactly sure why, but apparently he was a pretty good kisser. Not all that impressive when you took into consideration how many centuries he’d had to practice. “The Prince of Dogs. Has he been out to pee?”

  “No.” She shook her head as if she could shake away the spell he had cast over her. “He hasn’t.”

  “I’ll take him out, then. Walk Kaleigh downstairs. She should be getting home. She’s got school tomorrow.”

  Before Mai could protest, Liam walked into the living room. There was a commercial on TV for fruit snacks. “Okay, time to hit the road, kid.” He gestured toward the door. “Prince, come on. Outside.” He slapped his thigh.

  Neither the dog nor the teen responded.

  Liam wondered where the respect was. Didn’t they know he was a trained killer? Well, Kaleigh knew. But he was pretty sure the dog suspected.

  Kaleigh, he telepathed, outside. Now. You, too, he ordered the dog.

  To his surprise, both jumped up.

  Liam had never been able to speak telepathically to animals before. Was he gaining that gift? He stared at the little dog. It stared back, with bulging brown eyes, as if it knew what he was thinking.

  Maybe the damned dog was telepathic and could read Liam’s thoughts. . . . How weird would that be?

  “I gotta go, Mr. Ricci,” Kaleigh said. “But I’ll be by later in the week. We can take that walk on the beach. Okay?”

  Corrato didn’t answer, just nodded. Kaleigh didn’t seem to be offended. The two had obviously hit it off.

  “Going outside?” Kaleigh asked the rat terrier in a high-pitched voice.

  The dog danced a jig at her feet.

  “Prince going outside?” she cooed.

  Liam waited in the living room doorway to let them both pass, giving Kaleigh the eye as she went by.

  “What?” she asked, throwing up her hands.

  We’ll talk about it outside, he telepathed.

  Kaleigh stuck her head in the kitchen do
orway. “Thanks for dinner.” She pulled her sweatshirt over her head and flipped up the hood. “If it’s okay, Mr. Ricci and I thought we might take a walk on the beach sometime this week. Collect shells or something.”

  Mai turned from the refrigerator where she was stacking containers of leftovers. “I think he’d like that.” She glanced at Liam in the hallway. “If . . . if we can make it work.”

  “I think he’d be fine with Kaleigh,” Liam responded, understanding that she was concerned for her father’s safety. Of course, she didn’t know that Kaleigh had the ability to protect Corrato and take on several mafiosi, should the need arise. “In fact, maybe we should go to your place and have that look around while your dad hangs here in Clare Point with Kaleigh.”

  Mai closed the refrigerator door. “That would be great. Thanks.”

  “Good night,” Kaleigh called from inside the hood.

  Liam waited until they were outside before he spoke. The air was cool and there was a breeze off the water. Leaves fluttered at his feet. He let the rat terrier down and Prince took off along the grassy spot he had marked as his own. “What the hell is wrong with you, talking to Mai about having sex with Rob?”

  “She wasn’t supposed to say anything to you,” Kaleigh said from the shadows of the hood. He could hear the pout in her voice.

  “That’s not the point, Kaleigh. Mai is a human.”

  “You think I don’t know that?”

  Liam exhaled in frustration. “If you’re having problems, if you need to talk to someone about a vampire problem, you talk to a vampire.”

  “Right. Like who? My mom?” she burst out. “Who likes to pretend I’ve never had sex in fifteen centuries? Katy, who’d have sex with everyone? Or how about you? Could I come to you and talk about my personal problems? You, who keep yourself so walled off that no one can reach you?”

  The questions were obviously rhetorical. She kept going. “I’m the sept’s wisewoman. You know what that means? That means I’m responsible for all of you. Every damned one of you.” She sniffled and reached into her hood, to rub her nose, he suspected. “I have to listen to all your problems, help you solve them, and I’m not just talking little problems like who you are and aren’t having sex with. I’m talking big problems. Like . . . like world peace and if we should kill some guy in Australia.”