"I hate you," she rasped but it was pretty obvious at this point that she couldn’t be telling the truth because his fingers were still toying with the elastic below her belly button and at her adamant announcement of despising him he slipped his thumb beneath her sports bra in a spot that if he wanted to push his luck he would brush the underside of her breast. She should have punched him, instead her heart fluttered and she nearly fell into him. If she wanted to hate anyone in that moment it aught to be herself because if he did decide to push his luck by moving a hand in either direction she didn’t think she would have stopped him.
"I found a couple shirts that will probably fit you without getting in your way," this time Doug did not knock on his way back in, Jennifer nearly jumped out of her skin at his arrival but the vampire was probably expecting it, that and he had lightening fast reflexes. One minute she was practically in his arms and the next she found herself behind him in a way that probably completely blocked her from her cousins view. She was still close enough that for a moment she put her forehead against his back and tried to catch her breath but contact with him in any physical way didn’t seem to help that course of action along. So she stepped out around his six foot, muscular frame and simply acted like she had nothing to hide, because so far, outside of her obvious attraction to a dead guy, nothing had happened.
"Thanks Doug," her voice didn’t sound right, she felt off kilter, again, as she stepped around the vampire, but her Cousin stayed oblivious. A fact she wasn’t entirely certain she was grateful for, it would be a kindness if he noticed so he could smack some sense into her. But since he didn’t notice and she was less than willing to point out to him that she was lusting for a corpse she just walked up to Doug and took the first shirt he made to hand over. "This will do fine," she didn’t hesitate to slip the shirt on over her head. It was a size larger than she’d normally wear, as having too much material to grab onto was never a benefit in her line of work, but she was simply grateful not to be half naked in front of the vampire anymore. "You are a life saver Cuz," she gave him a brief, if not awkward hug before making her way back to the weapons on the table. She avoided eye contact with the vampire, it was the only way she could think of avoiding or denying that anything had potentially happened minutes before between them. "I don’t suppose you know how out in the open we might be while looking for this guy?" She asked the vampire keeping her focus solidly on what was in front of her, she was debating if putting the hip holster on would be a waste of her time.
"None," she could feel the vampire behind her and tried to ignore him, it was an impossible task.
"I’ll leave you two to it," her Cousin was probably going to go make phone calls to what was left of her people and she couldn’t think of a single reason she could verbalize that he shouldn’t leave her alone.
"Great," she grumbled as the door closed and his receding foot steps seemed to feel like her impending doom. She had just made up her mind that the Beretta would probably have to go in her waistband, an unpleasant idea given her unusual commando status, when the vampire got close enough to bump into her. Contact with him felt like a lightening bolt through her system, every time her heart raced and not because she was frightened, the contact was subtle this time, his chest touched her back and she felt his thigh practically between her legs. Mortified she practically fell onto the table but instead panting she caught herself with her hands but she still felt like she’d just assumed the position for him to have his way with her, which he didn’t do. Maybe he was waiting to see what she was going to do, if she would do something, but outside of keeping completely still and trying to breath she didn’t move an inch. She had no idea what was wrong with her, she’d laid eyes on the monster behind her in that gas station the other night and something in her had clearly gone awry. "I don’t know what you’re doing to me," she just really wished he’d un-wedge his leg from between hers.
"I would really like you to stay," if there was anything she could say for the vampire, he knew how to say the wrong thing to her. His comment got her blood boiling for completely different, hostile reasons, she used the hand hold that she was using to keep herself from falling over on the table to push back off of it. She spun around and grabbed hold of his shirt, using the fabric to force him around and slam him back on the desk. She was fully aware that the only reason he ended up with his back on the desk looking up at her with her elbow to his throat was because he let her do it.
"I need you to......." she was going to say shut up, they were burning through too much time standing around doing nothing, but he used the elbow she was holding against his throat to yank her off her feet. It was inconvenient that she sprawled forward and ended up straddling his lap before she could finish her sentence. This was not a place she should want to be but when he pulled her down and they were flush against each other she definitely liked where she was.
"Haven’t you ever wanted to be safe?" he asked with his hand in her hair, his mouth was again inches from hers. It was against all of the rules but she was caught in his kaleidoscope eyes, watching them subtly swirl from brown with golden flecks to amber. It was terrifying being caught in that stare and knowing it wasn’t because he was using his vampire mind games on her. If she hadn’t set the Bowie knife down in search of cloths she might stab him, she felt that helpless, that scared of herself and whatever was going on between the two of them, but she had set it down. He could have kissed her, really given his strength and undead status she was perfectly aware that he could have done anything he wanted. Instead he seemed to simply be waiting for her to answer his very personal, at least in her line of work, question.
"Safe is boring," she answered pushing out of his arms clumsily, when she slipped off his lap and nearly fell on the floor he caught her. She huffed hating the fact that having him around seemed to turn her into a clumsy moron. As soon as she was back on her feet instead of panting in his lap he was smoothly back on his feet. When she turned back around to face him, which was no easy task, he had her Beretta in his hand. "So what you’re going to shoot me so I have to stay here?"
He smiled, "having an unpredictable yet fragile human around won’t be boring at all." He was back up in her space, "we aren’t taking your car." Jennifer was going to grouse about it, but he used that distraction to put the Beretta in her hip holster and swing the holster around her, he was buckling it onto her before she could ask him what he was doing. Again before she could think twice about it he was on his knees in front of her buckling the strap down her thigh, he didn’t go out of his way to avoid brushing against every inch of her, from her upper thigh to her knee. She should have been revolted that he was touching her at all, instead she tried to focus her attention to staring at the top of his head, which didn’t prove helpful at all. "Get everything you’re bringing with you and meet me outside," like he could sense she was looking at him he tilted his head up to look at her. She didn’t say anything until he was on his feet, she did not want him taking off without her so she grabbed hold of his arm. It was almost a childish gesture, or it would have seemed that way if she wasn’t so aware of the fact that her breasts ended up pressed to his biceps. At the contact she felt herself blushing scarlet and was almost tempted to release her hold, but in the end she was more determined to keep from being left behind then she was of being embarrassed.
"No way, if I’m going to be forced to take vampire transportation you’re waiting for me." He smiled but said nothing as she let him go and turned to grab the Remington, loaded it, put more ammo on the strap that was rigged to carry it and slung it over her shoulder. Once she was done there she gathered the Bowie knife he’d given back to her that she’d abandoned on her own desk and slid it into it’s place on her belt. Considering all the time they’d wasted doing whatever it was they’d been doing Jennifer figured it was probably unwise to bother talking about how they’d travel. "Let’s go then," she didn’t think she was going to like traveling with the vampire, she’d already had a little taste of
it, so she had a good idea what was in store for her, which didn’t make the situation any more agreeable.
Chapter 22
Jennifer ended up holding on tight to the vampire with her eyes closed, she had no idea what he did because she didn’t open them again until it was over. She knew the speed with which he was capable would only be disorienting for her, she had no great urge to vomit on the vampire, even if her stomach was empty. It didn’t feel like more then a few minutes that he’d been doing, whatever vampires called how they moved, before she felt the world go still around her again. "You can open your eyes now," she felt as well as heard the vampire purr at her, probably because not only had she had her eyes closed but she’d basically buried her face in his chest to. It was surprisingly warm where she was which seemed impossible but she knew that vampires tended to warm up a bit when they’d fed, and she didn’t want to go there. She was working her way up to opening her eyes when she noticed yet another anomaly.
"You have a heart beat," she looked up at him, tried to ignore his amused smile and pressed her ear to his chest. "That’s just insane, you have a heart beat," she told him again before looking up at him.
"You know so very little for someone who hunts us," he said hunt but didn’t lose his smile for a minute. "My kind can regulate their heart, it can beat, it can not, same goes for breathing, I rather enjoy the activity but it isn’t by any means necessary." When she just shook her head he motioned for her to follow him and she finally took note of their surroundings. They were near the back of the club, only a small walk from that back door he’d so readily given her a key to.
"You told me you’d give me the name’s for the people in your group," Jennifer reminded as she kept a steady pace behind him. He shook his head, and she knew from the amused look on his face that at least he wasn’t offended that she’d decided to simply ignore the fact that vampires, at least on occasion, had a beating heart in their chest.
"You’ll meet them in a minute, introductions will be made, and any form of cataloging your kind is determined to do is up to you from there." He seemed so certain that she wasn’t going to make a big deal out of doing just that, but if she thought for a minute she could get the vampires she was about to meet to fill out an entire survey, listing their names, vampire ranks, and all the people they’d murdered in the course of their lives, if they could even remember anymore, she would.
"How long is this going to take," she asked deciding that pushing the subject of vampire cataloging by ‘her hunter kind’ and it’s importance, was not something he would want to argue about.
"Few minutes, with any luck they’re already prepped and ready to go," but he didn’t sound to hopeful. Considering time was of little significance to them and they could move at the speed of light she supposed it wasn’t unthinkable that as usual, even in a crisis, vampires would procrastinate.
"Of course," when he opened that invisible back door and stepped in she hesitated for the first time tonight to follow him. So far she had worked solely with him alone, true she’d encountered two of ‘his’ vampires but it had given her little basis on what to expect. There was no way to know whether or not she would be safe in there, with no one watching her back, not really. Of course he noticed her hesitation before he made it more then a few steps, whether that was due to his super hearing or because he shared that weird bond she felt when he was close by she would never ask.
"There is no need to hesitate," he noted the way her hand strayed to the weapon he’d strapped onto her hip himself and shook his head. "No one will touch you while you are under my protection," she shouldn’t believe him, she had no reason to, well other than the fact that so far he’d saved her life and outside of being ludicrously seductive hadn’t touched her.
"Vampires make me nervous," that wasn’t saying much, you would have to be a complete moron to surround yourself with blood sucking murderous fiends with super hearing, super strength, and super speed and feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
"And some vampires should make you nervous, just not my vampires," he shrugged, "at least not tonight. Until we’ve solved our zombie problem we work together, because that is what’s best for everyone." He seemed to be series about thinking that vampires and vampire hunters, well hunter singular, working together was a good idea. The why of it was completely beyond her and he didn’t seem inclined to explain, normally that would make her take a step back, take time to analyze. Well normally she wouldn’t have considered it at all but she was in one of those desperate times, desperate measures scenarios. In the end she forced herself to step over the threshold of the door, she might end up dead, she might not, and if it was the latter then she got names out of it. True while names didn’t give her much information, if they were known vampires it could let her know whether or not some of the blood fiends needed to be put down, eventually.
Once she was in the building Ethan closed the door behind them and led the way into the darkness that was the club. It was a place that was usually open on only Fridays and Saturdays, so the building was quieter than Jennifer was used to hearing it. There was still the pounding rhythm of music coming from somewhere, and she knew without seeing that it was probably down here where the vampires tended to roam, and kill. She forced herself to ignore it, she had forced herself to stand idly by before, it got harder to do each time, but she knew that interrupting feeding time for vampires tended to make them cranky and she had more important, potentially zombie apocalypse matters to attend to. "How many vampires are here," Jennifer asked, "I’m assuming more then just what you consider yours."
Ethan glanced to her over his shoulder, "Ada prefers to keep this place open at all times for our kind. I’m sure there are enough to make things uncomfortable if you wanted to try to make a go at them." She got the impression he was teasing her about trying anything, for the moment he was right, she hated that he was right about anything concerning her. "Keeping the reason for your presence here quiet is advisable given any number of the other vampires here might belong to Ada."
For a confused moment Jennifer tried to work the words he’d just said through her head, "wait, I thought you were one of Ada’s."
Ethan looked back at her again, "I’m sure she’s under the same misconception, and let us keep it that way." He turned down a tunnel that was a few down from the one that led to his office, she always forgot what a maze of tunnels were down here. She couldn’t help but wonder if it had always been like this, considering it was an old closed down factory building of some sort she found that unlikely, but then again she had no actual idea how long vampires had held ownership of it either. Maybe it wasn’t always a showy club but it could very likely have always had secret tunnels beneath it where vampires lived. Ethan led her into a section so dark it was suffocating, she probably should have paused since she couldn’t see an inch in front of her face but she forced herself to keep moving forward. She was in no mood to waste more time and if he thought he was going to catch her off guard then he had another thing coming.
In less then a minute he pulled a door open up ahead and light came streaming out as well as quite a bit of chatter. She could not explain why the sound made her chest hurt, probably because her colleagues and her office used to sound like that when they’d gather together. It was something she would never share with the people she’d lost again, something she might never work her way into being comfortable around again. Jennifer gritted her teeth against the painful sensation in her chest and made her way into the room behind Ethan without hesitating. Apparently they either hadn’t had warning of her or they hadn’t expected her to actually be stupid enough to come because the room fell silent when they took note of her.
Jennifer didn’t take it personally, she probably would have acted worse if someone had brought a vampire into her place of work or safe haven, well except for apparently Ethan. She did a quick body count of the room, five males, not including Ethan and one female, that made a total of seven. In an attempt to try and ignore her urge
to go for the Beretta, which seemed to pop up any time she laid eyes on a vampire, she tried to focus on the room. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, vampires to get together in torture chambers or places that had blood splattered walls and dead bodies. What she found herself in was a well lit gym, the floor was covered in blue mats, assorted punching bags hung from the ceiling and on the opposite side of the room sat exercise equipment. Why vampires would need a treadmill was beyond her but there were all sorts of weight lifting and cardio-aerobics equipment in the room. They could bench press a fire engine and run faster then a Porsche, and they were surrounded by useless equipment, she had to figure it must be for humans they kept around. She liked that idea less then she liked the idea of being alone in a room full of vampires.
But the minute she looked back up at the crowd in the room that was staring at her as if waiting to see what she was going to do, her instincts tried to kick in and reflexively she reached for the Beretta at her hip. Before she could do it Ethan’s hand shot out and took hold of her, she looked at him, not at all pleased, but not trying to take her hand back either because if she did they both knew exactly where it would try to stray to. "Perhaps we should try introductions before you decide to try to shoot anyone," Ethan breathed and she knew that even though he whispered it the entire room had heard him. She spared a glance down at his hand wrapped around hers before looking back to him and giving an exasperated nod.
The minute he took a step forward with her hand in his, the tension that appeared to be knotting everyone of the vampires shoulders seemed to drain out of the room. Well it drained out of everyone’s shoulders but her own, the more comfortable they seemed to get the more nervous it made her. While it was true that she’d had more exposure to vampires in the lines of conversing then any of the other members on her team, she still didn’t quite understand how they thought. Were they calming down because they didn’t perceive her as a threat anymore, or was the hand holding some kind of claim indication for them. There were other options probably, she didn’t like the thought of either of the ones she’d thought up on short notice. She tried to shut it down, remind herself that she was only here because she needed to get to Dimitri, and as revenants went he seemed to be just a tad smarter than one that had been human first. Not by much, but last she’d seen him he’d still had enough brains to run from taking damage rather then dying.
Revenant's Kiss (Chronicles of the Afterlife) Page 24