by Mary Hughes
“Not good for me?” I suppressed a snort of derision. Fatherly advice from a bloodsucker? “Why not?”
“Because of neuro…something. Sounds like narrow plastic?”
Ryker said, “I’d guess he means neuroplasticity.”
Race frowned at him. “Do I know you?”
“I’m a private investigator,” Ryker said smoothly. “Perhaps you’ve seen my commercials.”
Neuro was neurons, like brain. My vampire dad was reading brain stuff?
Race lowered his hands, his gaze earnest. “When you practice something, you wear ruts in your brain, right?”
“Yeah.” It was why, after ten thousand hours of practice, I could accurately chop a sucker’s head off with one stroke, faster than most of them could counter, even with their preternatural speed.
“Here’s the thing. Anything you do over and over wears ruts. Including bad habits.” His gaze narrowed on me. “Including bad emotional habits.”
That hit home. I fidgeted uncomfortably. I hated all suckers because my parents had been murdered…by one sucker. Had that always been the case? Or had I hated that one so often, it had become a toxic emotional habit?
“Kat, I get it.” His expression softened. “They’re all ravening monsters—at least all the v-guys you’ve met are. Hell, I was that way once. But I changed. Training hard, joining a household, I got Zen and better role models, and they turned me around. Especially the love of a good woman remade me. Hattie knew what I could become, and she helped me every step of the way. Your mom is really smart.”
I squirmed inside. Moral ambiguity sucked. Damn it, this was why I was a fighter. Vampires were evil, I sliced and diced, problem solved. I disliked Rey mucking in my psyche; from him it was intolerable. I pushed doubt away and reached behind my head to slash a reply.
Ryker grabbed my wrist, gently, but his hand was strong and steady. “You’d regret that.”
“Give me one good reason,” I growled. “One good reason ‘that’ won’t make me the happiest hunter in the world.”
“First, there are families present.” He smiled at me as if I wasn’t about to commit patricide. “Second, police patrol the area. Third, you’d make a helluva mess. Think of the paperwork.”
“Might be worth it.”
“Last but definitely not least, you’d cut off any chance to get acquainted with him. To learn about your father.”
“Yeah, that’s kind of the point.” But the heat had gone out of my words, out of my body. I lowered my hand, hating myself that any part of me agreed with him.
“Time and space will help. Let’s get out of here.”
Ryker wrapped one strong arm protectively around me and ushered me through the throng. I didn’t see where we went, totally turned inward. That had been close. I’d almost killed Race.
I still wasn’t sure if stopping me had been a good deed or not. And I didn’t like that I wasn’t sure.
Ryker bought tickets at some point, and then we were in the seats of a ride.
Entering a dark tunnel.
The only two people in our car.
Little hearts started exploding in neon around us.
“What the hell—?”
“Relax.” He cupped my face in one warm palm. “I picked it because it’s quiet and dark. I promise not to ravish you.”
Ravish. Our gazes locked. My heart beat once, twice. Oh, what the hell. It would take my mind off Race. I leaned in. Whispered, “What if I want to be?”
He startled. I liked that. I liked it so much, I took his head between my hands and brushed my lips across his.
The man had insanely kissable lips.
I did him like he’d done me, slow, lingering, light brushes of flesh more heavenly than the deepest tonguing.
The silk of his mouth heated under mine. I kept it soft, teasing.
Until temptation got the better of me, and I grazed my teeth along his satiny lower lip.
He hissed. He dug both hands into my hair and thrust his tongue, hot and potent, into my mouth.
Slow wasn’t doing it for him this time. Yeah.
I opened to the power of him, the dark and masculine taste of him. We battled tongues for a long, intense, satisfying while. Then I broke the kiss, tore off my neck guard, and kicked up my chin. I wanted that hot, talented mouth on my tender throat.
He read me loud and clear. His lips, tongue, and teeth combined in a glorious symphony of seduction along the tendon of my neck, over my throat. I gasped, swallowed hard against a rising well of desire, and gave in to panting. I was so turned on I wanted to throw a leg over his hips and grind everything that was wet and needy on me into him.
Hoping he was as needy as me.
One way to find out. I slid a hand onto his thigh. The fabric was tight, as if pulled taut by something huge. I snared a little pinch of cloth and tugged gently to rub it against all that was male and glorious.
He rewarded me with a groan from the depths of his being.
That marvelous sound made me shiver. Light-headed, I twisted toward him and arched my back, putting my aching, heaving breasts into his line of sight.
Now he was the impatient one, practically ripping my vest and catsuit zippers in his eagerness to get them down. The instant he did, he cupped my breasts, one in each hand.
He bent, and though I couldn’t see anything but his black hair in the bursts of pink light, sensation abounded. He laved one nipple, rasping it with his tongue so hungrily the cloth of my sports bra might as well have been naked skin.
My breasts tightened painfully. Bolts of need coursed through me. I forgot about my father, forgot about the king. I had one thought in my mind.
Getting Ryker into my bed.
The instant the ride ended, I zipped as much as I had to, leaped from the car, and grabbed his hand. “Let’s head back to my place—”
Brrrng.
My phone was ringing. I snatched it from my pants and answered without checking the display. “What?”
“It’s me,” Alexis said. “I’ve analyzed the stuff in that hypodermic. You’d better get over here now.”
Chapter Seventeen
Kat dashed out of the midway, throwing on her neck armor, leaving Ryker gaping. Her taste and the sensation of her taut nipple, hardening under his licks, remained on his tongue. The sound of her panted breaths, her moans of pleasure, echoed in his ears. The incredible memory of her hand on his slacks, riding the cloth along where he wanted her most…
What the hell just happened?
When he tried to run after her, he was hampered by stiffness. He got to the edge of the lot and stood, uncomprehending, at the sight of Kat on her scooter, riding away.
Slowly, too slowly, his intellect came back online. She’d been two steps away from promising him heaven when she had a phone call. And the reason for that would be…
She had a lead. A lead she didn’t want Ryker to discover.
“Damn it all to Dalkhu.” A small splotch of oil marked the scooter’s parking place. He breathed deep, remembering the signature of her exhaust.
Swearing acidly, he took off at a run, following the stink. He managed to get close enough to hear the pop and buzz of the scooter’s engine—when the sound stopped.
She’d reached her destination. Judging by the street signs, he’d bet it was East Fourteenth and Adams—the Alliance stronghold of Luke Steel.
He considered arriving as himself for exactly one second before swearing again and dashing into the nearest concealing gap between buildings. Concentrating extra hard, he managed to get his body slim enough to fit the shirt of his Keydew disguise—but his pants caught on his erection, still ballooned.
Thousands of years, tens of thousands of lovers. And Kat’s mere kiss, a tiny rub of slacks, had left him this bothered? He wanted to howl.
Calling on m
ental techniques so basic he nearly didn’t recall them, he managed to get himself under control. More precious seconds lost.
What if it wasn’t only a lead on Elias or the needle’s poison? What if Alexis had found the secret to vampire kind?
Just what Kat needs. An even more efficient way to kill vampires.
Ha. That kiss had been more than effective enough.
…
I practically flew, certain Ryker was following me and would show up at any moment. But I was alone when I knocked at Alexis’s apartment door. The lock clicked. I pushed the door open, seeing no one.
“I’m in the lab.” Alexis’s voice came from down the hallway. “Come on back.”
When I stuck my head in, she was holding a tiny vial and wearing a huge smile. “First fruits.”
“What is that?” I came inside.
“Liquid gold.”
She handed it to me. The vial was no bigger than a thimble. The stuff inside was shimmering gold.
“I’d brewed up a faulty batch of vampire dissolving serum. But as I was throwing it away, it hit me—with what we discovered, a few tweaks could turn it into a super serum.”
“Powerful?”
“More than powerful. Impossible to resist. I managed to salvage a few milliliters of base serum and turned it into a couple vials of guaranteed death. That’s yours, because you gave me the key clue.”
Well hell. I now had the means to kill the vampire king. Grinning like a baboon, I tucked it in my vest.
“You’ll still have to get it past their tough hides,” she cautioned.
Just as the buzzer sounded.
I stiffened, smile disappearing. Ryker? Alexis exchanged a look with me. I shook my head. She clicked up an interface on her computer, how she got me inside without leaving her lab.
“Who’s there?”
“Officer Keydew, ma’am. I’m here to get the results of the hypodermic in the Elias case.”
…
As Officer Keydew, Ryker got buzzed in. He opened the door to Steel’s domain to reveal Kat emerging from the back hallway.
Alexis followed, the needle baggie in her hand. Her mouth was thin with concern. “The news is not good.”
He huffed a breath with Keydew’s narrow chest. “It’s vampire poison, isn’t it?” His worst fear.
“Wait.” Kat’s gaze narrowed to a knife’s edge. “How do you know about vampires?”
Crap. “I’m third shift patrol, ma’am. I’ve seen some strange things. Maybe real vampires don’t exist. People are out there, though, enough like vampires that I might as well call them that.”
She stared at him a moment longer while Alexis went on.
“It’s more than poison. First, it saps the vampire’s strength.”
“First?” His gut churned.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. I tested a tiny bit of the sample on Lu—a live v-guy.” She glanced at Kat, having nearly named her husband a vampire.
Kat’s frown switched to her. Her quick brain had fastened onto the stutter, and she might figure out what name Alexis was about to say if she wasn’t derailed pronto.
He took off his hat to scratch his head then brightened. “Oh, you mean that little man who calls himself Vlad Dracula?”
Kat’s suspicions ebbed. Alexis gave him a grateful smile. “I tested a few molecules of the stuff on his little finger. Luckily, I didn’t use it on his dominant hand.”
Ryker’s body chilled in premonition. “What happened?”
“It sapped the vampire from his hand. From his whole hand, not only the finger.”
“The ‘vampire’? I don’t understand.” Ryker smiled Keydew’s clueless smile. “What part, the strength? The healing?”
“No, the vampire. Everything. He tried misting—and his hand fell off. Luckily his wrist was unaffected. He was able to reattach the hand and the wrist sealed. But this stuff?” She waggled the baggie. “Humanized his hand.”
Ryker’s blood froze. “How long will it last?”
“It may be permanent.”
“Humanized.” Kat frowned, tapping a finger against her lip in thought. “If Elias got a full dose, would it have humanized all of him? Like, he wouldn’t need to drink blood?”
“Would he be human?” Keydew’s piping tenor was darkened with Ryker’s very real alarm.
“No, no. I didn’t explain it well. It wouldn’t restore humanity already missing, like bone marrow. He wouldn’t miraculously be able to produce fresh blood, but…” She worried her teeth against her lip as she considered it. “He’d probably feel human.”
Ryker’s gut churned like an iceberg hit it.
Kat murmured, “So he’d need blood…but he might not think he needed it?”
He pivoted to her, dismayed by that considering tone of voice. Her eyes gleamed with discovery.
Shock shot Ryker like a quiver of arrows.
She knew where Elias was.
Chapter Eighteen
The clues came together with a bang. I stood there, trembling with the force of discovery.
The broken needle: used to inject the vampire king with poison.
The poison: making him feel human, enough that he’d stop drinking blood. Blood he’d desperately need after losing too much of his own. The little left to him would be anemic.
The symptoms of anemia: Tiredness. Dizziness. Jaundice.
The eastern edge of Meiers Corners: the linchpin.
Where the armored van carrying Elias crashed. Where Elias disappeared.
Where Rey, driving east on Eisenhower, picked up a nice but sick man the night after Elias went missing.
And finally, the poor homeless man’s symptoms. Tiredness. Dizziness. Jaundice. Anemia.
My stomach was rigid, and my blood boiled with the terror of discovery.
The vampire king was with my sister.
I ran out. Voices rang behind me, calling. I could barely hear them over the pounding of my heart. Jumping on my scooter, I pushed off from the curb.
My hurriedly mapped plan was to zip to my flat to gather my more specialized weapons. I’d call Rey on the way. Make sure she wasn’t with the king at the homeless shelter. This close to five, she should be almost done with regular work. As I started off, I got out my phone and hit her speed dial.
My other hand slipped off the throttle, slowing me enough that Officer Keydew trotted into my periphery.
“Miss Kat,” he panted. “Wait!”
I’d figured he’d showed up at Alexis’s because she’d sent him a text, too. Now, I ignored him. “C’mon, Rey. Pick up, pick up.”
The phone went to voicemail.
I screeched to a halt. That had happened before, right? She almost always answered but… It had happened. I couldn’t remember the last time, though.
Foreboding iced my flesh.
“Miss Kat?” Keydew trotted around, gaze curious on my face. The color drained from his rosy cheeks. “What’s wrong?”
Straddling my idling scooter, I redialed. “She’s busy, that’s all,” I said to both of us.
The call went to voicemail a second time.
I tried not to panic. Last time she hadn’t answered an immediate callback, she’d been in the middle of a therapy session. Though she hadn’t been to therapy in years. Swallowing the cold lump of fear in my throat, I pressed her speed dial a third time. Emergency.
“Hi, this is Rey. Leave a message.”
“Damn it, damn it!”
Hands bit into my arms. “Kat, stop. What’s wrong?”
The command hardening his normally nice young tenor snapped me out of myself.
Keydew’s gaze was riveted to me, blue eyes darkened almost black with concern.
The novelty of him using what must’ve been his cop voice on me surprised me into answerin
g. “My sister.” My nerves kept me babbling. “She isn’t in immediate danger, at least I don’t think so, but she’s not picking up, so I’m not sure, and I don’t know what’s going on which scares me—”
“Right. I’ll take care of this.” He tapped his shoulder radio mic. “Keydew to Keck. I need the squad.” To me, he said, “Where is she?” Decisive Keydew was surprisingly strong.
“At work…no, I’m being dense. By the time we get to Chicago, she’ll be home.” I gave him Rey’s address.
Minutes later, a midnight blue, kitted-up SUV rolled into view. Keydew had a brief conversation with the driver, who nodded and got out. Keydew motioned me to the passenger side and slid into the driver’s seat. His hands were competent on the wheel as he took off, hitting lights and siren.
“We’re lucky Keck was driving a double shift. Back there. At Doc Alexis’s.” The young cop drove with surprising cool. “You know where Elias is, don’t you?”
“I think my sister does.” I chafed in the passenger seat. What would I find when I got there? Logic told me the vampire king was at the shelter, and my sister was safely driving home with her phone turned off.
Yet fear painted a bloodbath like my parents.
“How’d you figure it out?” His question broke into my churning thoughts. “That the king is with her?”
He was distracting me, but maybe I needed that right now.
“When the van crashed, Elias fought loose. He’s still missing, though, so everyone thought he’d been recaptured. But what if…” Fear thickened my throat. I swallowed and got the words out. “What if he got a lift out of town?”
“From your sister?” The young officer was quicker than I’d given him credit for.
“I think so, yeah.” I explained to him. Her homeless shelter. Calling for pickup. My hands, lying in my lap, were shaking. I had to do something, so I plucked the new tube of ruby serum from my vest to freshen the coat on my blades. I struggled to draw Joyce in the confines of the car. “Although she came across her homeless guy the night after the crash. I might be wrong.” But the danger resonated hot in my bones.
“We should still check it out,” Keydew said.