Regent gasped and instantly pushed his chair back from his desk. What in the name of …
He picked up his cell phone and texted an “OK.” But, after what he’d just seen on the screen … probably not “OK”.
JESS ENTERED HER apartment moments before dawn broke. She and Britt had walked all night, but hadn’t found any vampires that needed to be taken in hand. Too bad. She’d have liked to have taken a few more out.
She thought about the two vamps they’d run into earlier. First they’d attacked … and then they’d walked away. It was totally out of character.
Even if they’d returned to fight, Britt wouldn’t kill a vampire who’d shown he was able to think beyond his bloodthirst. He felt that kind of vamp was redeemable. Like her. His Achilles heel.
Just before dawn broke, she pulled off her leather suit and crawled into her black silk pajamas—alone.
Cold silk—cold body. The two went together well.
Britt had left her to return to her apartment alone, again. She moved stiffly toward her bed, stretched out, and waited for her world to turn to onyx.
The next evening, she knew better than to expect him. Disappointment was her middle name. Instead of scanning the room for someone who wasn’t there, she gripped the sides of her bed and felt deep dark, desolation take hold. No surprise—she badly needed prayers today.
Without having a shower first, she made for the kitchen. She needed blood, now. Her fangs were out and she looked like a demon from hell when she caught sight of herself in the living room mirror.
“Morning,” Britt said, from the white leather couch on the other side of the room.
How could she have missed him?
“Don’t you mean evening?” She held back the fact that he’d actually startled her. She hadn’t felt his presence in the room. Hadn’t heard his heartbeat.
She hated that he’d caught her in full vampire need. She wanted blood and for a second, he looked like the tastiest treat.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, then turned her back to swallow her sustenance in order to offset her need for his warm, pumping blood. She’d tasted him once. She knew the sweet heaven of him.
“It was late when we got back, so I decided to stay over.”
That hurt even more. When he stayed over, he often slept in bed with her. Maybe he was tired of sleeping with a virtually dead person. She hated that. Hated that she was cold as ice and twice as mean.
“We should meet up with Jane tonight,” Jess said. A change of subject was definitely necessary.
“Good idea,” he said, running his hand through messy hair. “I’ll grab a shower and get ready.”
“I’ll put the coffee on,” she said. She always kept his favorite brand in the cupboard. The only food in her place was for him.
“Sounds good. Thanks,” he said, avoiding her by walking the long way around the island to make his way to the second bathroom suite. Her shower was the largest and he usually preferred it, but not tonight, it seemed.
She sat on a barstool at the counter and felt her body reacting to the blood in her system. Blood increased her strength, gave her the ability to face the night. What if she just quit drinking it? Would she die?
She glanced down at her silk pj’s. She hadn’t showered yet, either. Suddenly, she had an idea. She put his coffee on, then stripped off her nightwear and padded down the hall to join Britt in the shower.
What’s the worst that could happen? He’d toss her out of her own shower? She stepped in the steamy room and saw his fine masculine shape through the acid-washed glass of the stall.
She opened the door and stepped in. Water streamed down his body. He’d been washing his hair and it was full of soap. He opened one eye and inhaled sharply. “Jess! You shouldn’t be here.”
“But I am. What are you going to do about it?”
His gaze drank in her body. Vampire or not, she knew she had a smoking hot bod. Her breasts were still perky, her waist trim, and her hips just full enough. Something akin to a tiny thrill hit her when Britt’s heart rate tripled the second he gazed at her body.
He instantly stepped back under the shower head and soap streamed over him. His eyes remained open. The soap must sting, she thought, moving closer to him until her breasts made contact with his bare flesh.
The hot water, the edgy mood, and excitement building in this shower made the need for sex palpable. She ran her fingers up his chest, capturing a rivulet of soap in the process. He groaned low in his throat and bit his lip. She circled his nipple with her fingers and it pebbled under her hand.
“You don’t want this?” she asked, pressing her wet body against his. They fit together like sexually explicit puzzle pieces. She moved back and forth and felt the slippery glide of his soapy frame while his need pressed against her stomach.
“Damn it,” he said. “I want it. I want you. But I can’t, Jess. I can’t risk it. You shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t be doing this to me.”
She pressed her mouth against his. She kissed him until he could do nothing but acquiesce to her searching tongue and possessive lips. His kiss deepened, and he placed his hands on her buttocks, pulling her hard against him.
Suddenly, he ripped himself away and pushed past her. He jumped out of the shower, wrapped himself in a towel, and left the bathroom. She’d known despondence before, but this was a real gut hit. He’d rejected her completely. It must truly be over between them.
He was drinking coffee when she finished her shower. She crossed the kitchen, stark naked.
She didn’t have to check to know his gaze stayed on her every step of the way past him. And when she turned back and looked at him for a minute, her silhouetted nakedness held his attention. He should’ve looked away if he wasn’t interested. But he didn’t.
He did still care. Shouldn’t that make her feel better? Should she have to go to such extremes to make herself feel better?
Inside her bedroom, she crammed herself into a corner behind the door and pressed her hands against her eyes. Right now, it felt like both men in her life had rejected her. Her brother didn’t want her help. Her lover continued to push her away.
She finally forced herself to get dressed. Her second favorite leather suit had been ruined, but she had another she’d wear tonight. It was an outfit that lifted her bust just a teensy bit higher and showed more cleavage. From now on, it was all-out sexual war. She’d do whatever she could to bring Britt around. To prove he had to have her. To show him that he wouldn’t hurt her.
She smiled and brushed her hair until it shone. Pushing her cleavage a little higher in the leather bustier, she left the room.
Chapter Eleven
THE ONLY THING that could stop Britt from ogling Jess’s naked body would be to claw his own eyes out. She was playing dirty pool.
The woman was temptation incarnate, and she was being totally unfair right now.
That said, he still bit back a grin. Deep down, he had to admire her nerve. As hard as it had been to jump out of that shower, he did it because he loved her. And he wanted her to be around to continue to love him, too. Unfortunately, for now, that meant that they couldn’t be with each other. Maybe, never again.
He couldn’t let her know just how damned affected he’d been by her nakedness. Or, how he’d felt when she came out in a new leather outfit that left little to the imagination in the cleavage area. He swallowed hard and tore his gaze away.
If she’d made it her goal to wage a battle against him, it was a very lowdown, ingenious way of keeping him on his toes. He might be pretending not to be interested, but she obviously intended to make him pay for his negligence.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said.
He followed her and all he could see was her tight butt moving seductively ahead of him. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.
When they got downstairs and onto the sidewalk, Jess stopped him by holding a hand up. “Wait a minute. Where are you going?”
“I’m
going with you,” he said.
She locked her gaze with his. “No. You’re not. You have work to do at the Lumination Building, and I have something of my own to do.”
“Just because you’re ticked at me—”
“I’m not.”
The worst part was, she was right. He needed to go to Fisk’s building tonight. He planned on attending a session incognito. He’d bought a disguise and had it in the trunk of his car.
The fact that she wasn’t telling him what her plans were concerned him. “What are you doing tonight, then?” he asked.
She pulled on leather gloves and fitted them between her fingers.
It was summer. And she didn’t wear gloves, not even in the winter. His concern-meter edged into overdrive. That said, there’d be no sense trying to find out what she was up to. She was pissed enough at him that she’d never tell him anything tonight. Especially not after that angry and spectacular naked show back in the apartment.
He shifted his stance. They were standing in the middle of the sidewalk, impeding suppertime pedestrian traffic. People were flowing past them on both sides. Local bars were already revving up, and the scent of food wafted on the air. His stomach rumbled. He hadn’t eaten in a long time.
“Be careful out there tonight, doll.”
“We’re both on vacation. What could possibly happen?” she asked.
Tempted for about ten seconds to follow her, he watched her head off in the opposite direction. One thing he knew about Jess, she could look after herself. She’d been doing that for decades before he came along.
“What are you up to, Jess?” he said to himself while he grabbed his gear from the trunk. He’d hoof it from here. He’d hired a makeup artist who worked for a film company. With makeup on, he’d look like a vampire. He’d be pale, and have fangs, the whole shebang. The hard part would be his heartbeat. No vampire in his right mind could miss that.
Luckily, he’d contacted Sampson, who had come up with a white noise patch to place on his chest. The noise might annoy the vampires, but they shouldn’t hear his heartbeat.
Two hours later, his disguise was complete. He looked in the mirror and gasped. Shit! This makeup guy, Bermuda Jones, was definitely good at his job.
“You going to a costume party?” Bermuda asked, touching up his face and leaning back for another look.
Britt answered before thinking. “No.”
Bermuda rubbed his left eyebrow and monitored his masterpiece. “Ahhh, you’re going to one of those clubs that cater to would-be vampires.”
Britt grinned and his fangs showed from under his lips. “Yeah, that’s it,” he said. Little did Bermuda know that this club hosted the real thing.
After paying the makeup artist’s exorbitant fee—though it was completely worth it—he glued the white noise patch over his chest in his car.
The schedule Fisk had given him indicated there’d be a service tonight at two a.m. He had plenty of time to make it.
He strolled inside like he’d been there before, and fell in line behind other vampires. They weren’t big on chitchat, so he didn’t have to contend with that.
He thought he caught sight of Jane at one point, but she either didn’t notice him or didn’t want to be anywhere near him. Then she’d disappeared. As small as she was, she could be in the elevator with him and hidden behind other vamps.
They ended up in a pretty impressive speaking theater angled steeply down to the location of the podium. The acoustics in here would be perfect, allowing Fisk’s voice to be heard from every point in the room.
Britt sat down in the midst of at least forty other vampires. If he were on duty, it’d be a great spot to wipe out a few vermin. He had an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach after that thought. If these vampires wanted to become more aware, to eliminate their killer instinct, it wouldn’t be quite as easy for him to kill them from now on.
The vampires of the city might have gotten a lot more complicated.
He patted the patch over his heart and spotted Jane in the seat across the aisle from him.
Had she noticed him? Could she hear his heartbeat?
She made no indication. The room was silent as the grave. He groaned internally at his own thoughts.
Fisk entered and crossed the stage in one of his elaborate ecclesiastical gowns. He wore a black vestment, decorated with red and gold floss that reflected light and seemed to burn and turn to embers in just the right light.
Fisk cleared his throat to gain the audience’s attention. Not that he had to. All eyes were on him and no one was talking.
“My friends, welcome,” he said, in a voice that reverberated through the auditorium. “If you’re new here tonight, you’re going to be illuminated and given the chance to broaden your horizons in a way you’ve never believed possible. You won’t thirst for blood every minute of every day. You’ll …” He held up his hands and made quotation marks in the air. “You’ll ‘be able to go in the sunlight’ eventually. In fact, for all intents and purposes, you’ll be able to regain much of your life as normal citizens again.”
That elicited an actual murmur in the crowd. “I’m not telling you that you won’t be vampires. No. That’s not what this is about. It’s about changing your quality of life and allowing you to feel somewhat normal again.”
Without a word, several of the vampires stood and made their way to the front. They’d lined up like civilized human beings. Penitent human beings. Britt gawked. Jane rose from her seat and made her way to the podium, as well.
Fisk lined them up in front of him, five at a time. He lowered his head and mumbled words over them. The blue light he wielded so casually erupted from his solar plexus and floated toward the vampires, entering them, one after another.
Two of them fainted, or dropped to the ground. Jane had been one of those. The blue light wound around her, going in and out of her as if she were Swiss cheese, before she’d fallen.
Something about what was happening on the stage struck a chord in Britt’s memory. After reawakening, he’d been sent to help Jess at an apartment in the city. He had near total amnesia at the time, but when he saw Jess, he’d felt a connection, even though he didn’t know her. He also had the ability to wield a blue light. But, his abilities were more instinctive than conscious. And his blue light vaporized vampires, it didn’t save them. Did that mean he and Fisk weren’t the same? Maybe Fisk was a savior and he was a killer? Maybe the monk had been wrong about them?
When the session was over, Brewster helped the vampires to their feet, and they made their way back to their seats. At least twenty of them had been treated when Fisk motioned for the end of healing. Several vampires had missed out and they didn’t look happy until Fisk told them to pick up a special card and they’d be healed first at the next night’s session.
Fisk spoke for another ten minutes or so. A bunch of bunk, as far as Britt was concerned. Faux-religious mumbo jumbo that didn’t mean much. The true words he’d felt had been the language spoken over the vampires. Those words created a hum inside his chest, and he’d literally forced himself not to let his own blue light out.
Now with the session over, everyone left, just as they’d arrived. Without speaking. He didn’t see any difference in the vampires who’d been treated, but he’d soon find out. He intended to go to Jane’s before dawn and ask her what Fisk had done to her. For her? Whatever.
He made his way back to his car and started it. He was about to pull away when someone tapped on his window. He jammed his foot on the brake and shoved the gear shift into park.
It was Jane.
He unlocked the door and let her in.
“How’d you know it was me?” he asked, hoping against hope that everyone in the room hadn’t been aware of him, especially Fisk.
“For one thing vampires don’t drive vehicles.” She giggled. Actually giggled. “And you’ve got some weird sound emanating from you. It’s not very loud, and if I hadn’t been looking for you, I wouldn’t h
ave noticed. But now that I know it’s you for sure, I’m guessing it’s something to hide your heartbeat?”
He nodded. “Yeah, glad it worked—kind of. I’ll remember the tip about driving.”
She looked at him closely. “You really look like a vampire. Whoever did this to you did an amazing job,” she said, then frowned. “Where’s Captain Vandermire?”
“I’m sure she’d want you to call her Jess,” Britt said.
“I’ve looked up to her for so long,” Jane said, “it’d be hard to call her Jess. She’s such an amazing woman.”
“I certainly agree with you there,” Britt said, and started the car. “Can I drive you home?”
Jane smiled at him humbly. “I’d like that. I’ve got something to tell you,” she said, then sat quietly.
Apparently, she wasn’t going to tell him anything else until they reached her place.
JESS CLIMBED THE brick wall and sniffed the night air. There were guards all over the rectory. It had become a virtual fortress. She spied the church next door and bit her tongue. Would Regent still be giving services? She checked her watch. He usually had a six o’clock service for the regular churchgoers.
At least, there didn’t appear to be any soldiers on the church parapets. If she waited outside the front doors, she might be able to catch him before he went back to the rectory. She gritted her teeth. He’d told her not to come to the rectory, but he hadn’t told her not to come to the church itself.
She climbed the cement steps and slunk behind one of the large pillars in front of the huge stone church. She’d hidden here many times, but one of the more memorable times had been when Britt had first been recruited.
She could hear the service going on inside the massive doors. Churches smelled different than any other buildings. There was a fresh, yet Old World, odor about them.
The sermon began, and it was Regent’s voice she heard inside. Thankfully. She crouched down into a corner and made herself as small as possible. She recited the prayers as the service continued.
Finally, it was over and the doors opened. A handful of people left. Once upon a time, there had been dozens of faithful who attended the weeknight services. But now, even in the city, the church would be lucky to get hundreds, even on the weekends.
Grave Expectations - Jess Vandermire 4 Page 12