After he’d eaten, Britt checked the windows and doors of the rectory, making sure they were all locked. He resisted the urge to go downstairs and see Jess in her room. Instead, he closed his eyes and tried to visualize what his life would’ve been like if he hadn’t met Jess.
She was an amazing woman. Beautiful. Strong. Talented.
Without making a conscious decision, he found himself moving down the basement stairs to her room. It wasn’t as if he’d wake her, and he should know where she was in case he had to protect her against an attack. He needed to get the lay of the land. That was his story and he was sticking to it.
Besides, he needed to look for weapons. Surely Regent had some vampire fighting equipment in the house, and he’d bet the man had stored it in the basement. After all, you couldn’t have members of the church or a housekeeper stumbling across weaponry.
He saw her bedroom door as soon as he entered the basement. It was made of heavy wood, and he figured it would be locked. He tried the knob and found it open. Good thing he’d come down here. He’d lock it when he left. Any thoughts of weapons left his head when he saw Jess lying on the bed with her hair pillowed around her head. She looked like any other beautiful sleeping woman, except her chest wasn’t rising and falling.
He stood over her, admiring her facial lines, her mouth, her nose. He thought about the night she’d pressed herself against him. Thoughts of her soft lips and firm body were paramount in his musings. His gaze traveled the length of her before he decided he’d been staring at her longer than he should have. With a silent curse, he turned away. Voyeur he wasn’t. Or at least he hadn’t been until now.
After one last look around the room to verify she was alone and safe, he returned to Regent’s office and began scanning the papers on his desk just in case there might be a clue as to what had happened to him. There wasn’t.
He yawned and stretched his arms into the air. He needed rest and would have to find a suitable place to sleep. Hopefully not far from the door to the basement. He wanted to be nearby in case Jess needed him.
He scanned the room and noted the old leather couch in an alcove near the window. Not quite long enough for him, but it would have to do.
He stood, and then, as an afterthought, he leaned down to look under Regent’s desk. To his surprise, he found a button underneath with a thin cord that led down to the floor and tunneled under the carpeting. Positioning his finger over the button, he prayed it didn’t automatically dial 9-1-1. That’d just be his luck. How would he explain an apparently dead woman in the basement, especially when he was an intruder in the home of the missing priest?
Well, if it came to that, he’d deal with it. He pressed the button and a panel on the wall sprang open. An interior light flicked on the inside, displaying a cache of archaic looking weapons. Not to mention some pretty modern ones too. Guns, knives, even a few nasty looking axes that made him cringe, were mounted on the wall. Those babies could do a lot of damage.
At least he knew where to find an extra weapon if he needed one. He returned to the button and pressed it again. The panel closed.
Stifling another yawn, he settled onto the couch in Regent’s office. Besides the kitchen, this was the only room that led to the stairwell and to Jess. This was where he’d stay.
He closed his eyes for just a moment then flashed them open again. He had a low-level feeling he was being watched. Nothing urgent enough to make him jump off the couch—just a nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right.
But then, with Regent missing, that feeling would be natural.
Glancing around the room and seeing nothing, he figured his imagination was getting the best of him.
He closed his eyes again, telling himself he was just going to rest them for a minute. Whatever he did, he could not fall asleep.
Chapter Nineteen
A cold breeze blew across Britt. He shivered, waking suddenly from an uninvited deep sleep.
Must’ve left a window open, he thought, sitting up and looking around. He cleared his throat, blinked his eyes a couple of times and rubbed his stiff neck that had been propped against the arm of the couch. The throw blanket he’d covered himself with was on the floor.
“Wake up, buddy!”
Britt leaped to his feet. On the other side of the room, someone stood partially hidden in shadow. At first, he thought it was Regent. But Regent wouldn’t lurk in the shadows.
Panic set in, and Britt’s gaze flashed instantly to the basement door, visible from Regent’s office door. He’d locked Jess’s room and the basement door earlier, but vampires were strong. If the shadowy person was a vampire, he could wrench that door off its hinges without thinking about it.
“Who are you?” he demanded, squinting at the shadows.
He was still trying to clear his sleep deprived vision when Randy stepped forward, and smiled at him.
“God Almighty. It’s true. You’re a damn vampire!”
“So, you’ve already figured it out.” Randy looked mildly impressed. Then he stalked to the window, pulled back the curtain and peered out. “I thought it would be so much fun to shock the shit out of you, and you’ve spoiled my good time.”
“I’d like to say I feel for you, but it’d be a lie.”
“You’re supposed to keep the location of your charge hidden at all costs.” He pointed at the basement door. “Not much of a vampire protector, Brittain. You’re as much a failure at this as you were at being a cop.”
He knew Randy was trying to get a rise out of him, but his words stung just the same. He took a tentative step closer to his ex-partner. Seeing a vampire was one thing, but seeing someone he knew, someone who’d been a partner and friend, coming back from the dead was another.
Randy didn’t look dead. In fact, he didn’t look one bit different than he had when they were partners. But that was the whole point of becoming a vampire, wasn’t it? If Britt could work with him side by side, day in and day out, and not know Randy was dead, how would he expect to see a difference now?”
“So, you’re a vampire,” he said, trying not to be obvious as he stretched his taut shoulders and then rolled them. He needed to warm up in case he had to fight Randy.
Had Randy had been a vampire the entire time they’d been partners? He still couldn’t believe he could work with him night after night and not see something that would indicate everything wasn’t quite right.
“There’s no life like it.” Randy breathed deeply, and then his smug grin disappeared. He suddenly looked bored as he walked around the room, picking up Regent’s things, looking them over and setting them back down.
When he got between Britt and the basement door, Britt jumped forward. With one swift grab he pulled the stake out from the back of his pants and hit the spring, extending it for maximum protection.
“Relax,” Randy spat. “I don’t have any designs on your girlfriend.”
Britt kept the silver stake angled for use in his sweaty grasp and continued to block Randy’s path to the stairwell. “You’re going to pay for what you did to me.”
“Really?” Randy gloated, his eyes as focused as a pit bull about to attack. “As I said before, the first rule of a protector is to never give away the location of your vampire.” He laughed. “I could take her if I wanted to. Might have already done it while pretty boy was sleeping.”
Britt blanched, but even as panic surged through him, he forced himself to calm down and balanced himself for a fight. Had Randy found Jess while he slept on Regent’s couch? He couldn’t believe he’d fallen asleep on the job.
He decided to ignore Randy’s goading and turn the man’s—no, the vampire’s—attention elsewhere. “How the hell did this happen to you, Randy?”
A look of hatred flitted across Randy’s face, but then he grinned wickedly. “Becoming a vampire?” He snorted. “Best thing that ever happened to me.”
Britt watched his ex-partner closely. Hard to believe this man wasn’t in the land of the living. “Why
play dead? Why put me through all that?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know. I’m afraid that’s something you won’t be able to get out of me.”
“You’re right here in front of me and you’re not going to give me an explanation for screwing up my life? Why the hell not? I at least deserve that much.”
His head began to throb across the top of his scalp as his tension built. He wanted to tear down the stairs and check on Jess, but he couldn’t let Randy know how desperate he was to make sure she was all right.
“There are things going on. Things that would put even my life, or lack thereof, at risk if I told you too much.”
“Then why are you here now? To try to kill me?” Emphasis on try, he added silently. Randy would fail because Britt had every intention of winning this battle.
Randy laughed full out. “Kill you? Not likely. You’re somewhat of a celebrity among vampires.”
“Why?”
“Damned if I know. I can’t seem to get to the bottom of it. Word on the street is any vampire who touches you is dog meat.” He crossed his arms over his leather jacket. “I go to all the work of becoming a supernatural wonder and find out you still have more pull than I do, even in my world. You can’t begin to imagine how much that pissed me off. But at least I got to play dead and get you canned. I really wanted you to go to jail, but I couldn’t let them do an autopsy on me, could I? Even vampires can’t survive having their insides cut out. Unfortunately, that put a damper on the trial and let you off the legal hook.”
Britt shook his head, confused by Randy’s hatred of him. “I thought we were friends, but you destroyed my career and my life because you were jealous? What the hell was there to be jealous about?”
Randy rolled his eyes and showed his teeth for the first time. They were longer than Jess’s which made them look more ominous. “I wasn’t jealous. I was mad as hell. Everything you touched turned to gold. You made more collars than me. You saved more little old ladies. You had women clambering after you, and all you cared about was your slut wife. Who, by the way, was a very good lay.” He smiled malevolently.
Britt didn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing how angry that revelation made him. Not because he’d called his ex-wife a slut. That part was basically true. But because the man he’d considered a friend had slept with his wife.
“Hopefully you don’t think you were her only conquest. That’s why I divorced her. Hope you didn’t waste too much of your valuable time on her.”
He didn’t wait for Randy to respond. “But tell me, why would you have an affair with my wife, when you loved your own enough to try to turn her into a vampire? Admit it. You wanted to take her with you, but instead you killed her.”
His words hit their mark. Randy hissed and his face darkened. He sprang at Britt, gangrenous anger oozing out of every pour. Britt grasped the stake even tighter and raised it over his head. He’d forgotten about the cross around his neck until Randy’s eyes went to it. He backed off enough confirm it bothered him.
“Why are you so goddamn special?” Randy rasped angrily.
“I think you should be asking why Prometheus wouldn’t tell you,” Britt said.
“Who?”
“Nice try. If there’s a master vampire in town, I know damned well you’d be one of his suck-ups.”
“Christ, Britt. You never could resist a stupid pun.” Randy snorted and tried to look tough, while continuing to back away from the cross.
Britt kept edging closer. His jaw was set in a tight line, and he was sure his eyes were hard as ice. Killing Randy right now would give him immense satisfaction. But something didn’t click. Why was Randy here, if it wasn’t to kill him? Was he after Jess?
Britt’s worry kicked up a notch. Was Jess okay? Had Randy already been down there? Damn, he shouldn’t have been sleeping so soundly. Britt glanced at his watch. It was nearly dusk. That meant Randy had come here during the day.
Britt looked at him, monitoring his expression. Was he one of the vampires who’d become even more psychotic because of Sunshine? He must be using it if he could come here at this time of day.
“Tell me about Prometheus or I’ll send you to hell,” Britt ground out.
Randy feigned surprise. “Are you talking about that big guy who was lurking around the church? Word on the street is he had quite a little orgy going on up on the roof. That must’ve bothered your saintly vampire to no end.”
Before Britt could blink, Randy had removed a package of cigarettes out of his pocket. He lit one and drew the smoke into his lungs. “How’d you find out about Sharon’s death?”
So, Randy didn’t know about the run-in with Prometheus at the cemetery. Maybe he wasn’t as high on the totem pole as he wanted to be and didn’t even realize Britt and Jess had been at his family crypt.
He thought about goading Randy with the information, but he decided to change the subject instead. “Why’d you do it Randy? Why make me believe I killed you?”
Randy glanced toward the window again. Britt got the distinct impression he was going to leave.
“Wait!” Britt said, following him as he headed out of the room. “Where’s Regent?”
Lurching to a stop, Randy gave him a perplexed look. “Regent? How the hell would I know?”
When Randy fled at vampire speed, Britt spat out a curse and slammed his fist into the door casing. No sense trying to catch him; he was too damn fast.
As if the hounds of hell were on his tail, Britt flew to the basement door and wrenched it open. He bounded down the stairs, jumping whole sections by hanging onto the railing.
Jess lay dormant on her bed. Her face still looked peaceful. Of course her chest wasn’t moving. How would he know if she was dead? Really dead? Did every vampire evaporate when they were killed? He put a finger on her carotid pulse. Nothing. But what did he expect?
Not knowing if she was okay or not, he huffed out an irritated breath and plunked down on the bed beside her. He’d just have to wait for the sun to go down, which should be very soon.
He checked his watch again. There were no windows in the room, so he couldn’t tell when darkness settled. Regardless, it should be less than five minutes to dusk. Impulsively, he reached over and threaded his fingers through hers, holding her hand while he waited. Funny how he’d gotten used to the idea of her condition. She was as beautiful now as she’d been when she was awake. Her hand felt cool, but not like that of a dead person.
He jumped when she said, “What are you doing here, Britt?”
He’d expected at least some movement of her fingers when she first woke to indicate she was coming around. But she lay there, still as stone.
“Regent told me where he hid his extra key, so I stayed the night to protect you. Unfortunately, I need to brush up on my protection skills. I fell asleep and Randy got in. I wasn’t sure if he got to you, didn’t know how to tell if you were okay.” Britt fought down his anger. “I failed you, Jess.”
“John Brittain, haven’t you figured out yet that you’re way too hard on yourself. You haven’t failed me or I wouldn’t be here.”
“He could’ve come down the stairs.”
“No, he would’ve tripped an alarm the second his hand turned the door knob. Seconds after my bedroom door is locked and alarm is set. If there’s movement without heat, the alarm goes off. You would’ve reached me in plenty of time.”
“I wondered how Regent got any sleep. I guess an alarm would help.” He didn’t bother to tell her she’d forgotten to lock her door in her haste. He was glad he’d done it, even though he was unaware of her safeguards.
“Regent!” She pulled her hand from his and sat up. “Get out, I’ve got to change.”
Britt walked to the stairs. “I’ll wait for you. Where’s your food?”
“No time,” she said.
“Don’t you need to eat to keep up your energy?”
She looked irritated. “Of course.”
“Then make sure you have some or I’ll spoo
n feed it to you before we go.”
She began to take off her jeans while he stood there. Her black lace underpants were even more enticing than her leathers. He swallowed and continued to stare shamelessly.
She scowled at him. “Spoon feed me. Now, that I’d like to see. Get out of here or you’re going to see your first naked vampire.”
His eyes raked over her. “If the circumstances weren’t so dire, I’d take you up on that offer.”
“You’re hopeless,” she hissed, grabbed her clothes and stepped into her ensuite bathroom. But not before he got a great rear view. Shit! Talk about a picture.
On his way up the stairs, he muttered, “I’m not hopeless, I’m hopeful.”
“I heard that,” she called out. “Why do you always mutter to yourself? People will think you’re loony.”
“I’m not used to people listening to my nearly silent ramblings. Guess I’ll have to be more selective about what I whisper from now on.”
“Yeah, right,” she called out from below. “You knew exactly what you were doing.”
He closed his eyes for a second and relived the sight of her curvaceous derriere. Hot blood rushed through his veins and he tried to tamp down the urgent need for her.
Thinking about Regent helped. The old man was probably in a bad position right now. If he were still alive.
It only took Jess a couple of minutes to pull herself together and swallow a packet of blood. She rushed up the stairs to find Britt waiting at the door with her coat and sunglasses in hand. She could have kissed him. No way would she have been able to wait one second more to be on her way.
“Got your cell phone?” she asked. “I’ve got to call the team. Get them moving on Regent’s disappearance.”
“Already did it.” He held the door open for her. “Drake, James, and the team are going to be waiting for us outside the precinct. In the back parking lot.”
“Drake is coming too?” Drake had been acting strangely lately. Maybe because he was being pressured from above. Either way, she had concerns about Drake right now. But he’d always been a good man, and she had no real reason not to trust him other than he wasn’t telling her everything. When it came right down to it, he was the boss. He didn’t have to tell her every detail of what was going on, though she preferred that he did. She was the one on the front lines. The one putting the team at risk.
Grave Illusions Page 20