She dashed to the door, hoping to get him out of there before Davede showed up, but as soon as she yanked the door open, her face dropped.
Davede stood on the other side, looking casual in the best way possible in jeans and a plum-colored henley with the sleeves pushed up, revealing muscular forearms. She’d never seem him look like that. She’d told him he didn’t have to dress up, that she’d be happy going out to a bar tonight, but she wasn’t sure if he even owned any jeans. These looked like they were made to fit him, though, and she desperately wanted to see if his butt looked just as good with nothing on.
Davede had a big smile for her, but it faltered as soon as he saw her face fall. His brow wrinkled in confusion as he looked down at what she was wearing. Then he must’ve caught her scent, because his face hardened. Crap! Could he tell what she’d been doing?
She smiled and tried to play it off. “Hey Davede, come on in. I’m sorry, I’m not ready yet. I had an unexpected visitor.”
He stalked past her, into the living room, his eyes scanning the place. For what, she wasn’t sure. Did he think Houston was still there? His gaze landed on the couch. Piper cringed when she noticed a wet spot on the turquoise velvet. He whipped his head towards her with a snarl.
“I can tell. I can smell him all over you. You had sex with some other vampire right before our date?” His milk chocolate eyes swirled to black, and his face was twisted in a scowl.
Crap! What could she say? He could obviously smell the evidence. She dropped her head and stared at her hands as she twisted her fingers. “It’s just, you never… we don’t… I didn’t think we were exclusive.”
He was beside her in a moment, hands on his fists, his strong muscles flexing below his pushed up sleeves, his large body vibrating with anger. She’d never realized how big he was before. Born vampires were all on the large size, but Davede had never looked so intimidating. Piper’s heart fluttered like a panicked bird in a cage, and her nerve endings crackled.
He shoved her hair back, and she immediately slapped a hand against her neck to cover the fang marks, but she knew he’d seen them. His eyes narrowed and shot laser beams that seared right through her hand to the spot where the marks were.
“You fed him, too?”
She dropped her hand and toyed with the hem of her robe. “I told you before that I fed him.”
Davede still loomed over her, breathing hard. “At the clinic. Not at your home. Or have you done that before, too?”
She was too afraid to answer that. Davede was so angry, he was liable to turn her in. “He just showed up, and he was hungry, and…”
“And what? You want him so bad you were willing to do whatever he wanted? Am I wasting my time here, going out with you?” He stepped away, and she instantly felt the loss of his presence.
“No, I really like you.” In fact, at the moment, she was more attracted to him than ever. She’d just been with Houston, but her whole body hummed with desire for Davede. Was it his anger that turned her on, or just the raw power he was exuding? She moved towards him till she could feel it again then put her hand on his chest. It burned with his passion.
“It’s just…I thought he might be willing to turn me someday if I gave him what he wanted.”
Davede grabbed her hand, crushing it against his chest. His body crackled with energy. “That’s what you want from him? To be turned?”
“More than anything,” she whispered, breathless with desire.
He stared into her eyes, the dark chocolate sinfully appealing. “I’ll do it.”
She shook her head, trying to clear away the fog of lust. She knew what he wanted, but she wasn’t willing to give it to him, and she couldn’t let herself be tempted by his offer. “I’m not ready to be mated.”
He let go of her hand and slid his hands down her arms, leaving a sparking trail of electricity. “I don’t care, as long as you drink from me and promise not to see him again.”
Images of him biting her, turning her, her body transforming into a fantastical creature exploded in her mind like fireworks, their brilliance blinding her to everything else. All she had to do was say one word, and she’d have what she’d fantasized about for as long as she could remember.
Chapter 25
Caroline stared at Roric’s picture on her phone, her finger hovering over the call button. Her eyes burned from rubbing away unshed tears, her head pounded with thoughts of him. She laid in bed at night, cold and shivering, missing his warmth, and her whole body ached with need like she had the flu. But vampires didn’t catch viruses, so she knew she was only lovesick.
She was weak and pathetic, and she knew it, but she really wanted to call him and see if he missed her anywhere as much as she missed him. The fact that he hadn’t called her, even though it’d been almost two weeks, told her he’d probably moved on already, but he was so stubborn, maybe he was waiting for her to realize she needed him and come crawling back.
Was she willing to do that, even if it meant giving up some of her independence? The phone rang before she had a chance to make up her mind, but it wasn’t Roric.
“Hey, Houston.” She sighed, grateful for the distraction, and smoothed her hand over the rumpled comforter. She hadn’t made her bed in days; she’d only gotten out of it to go to work.
“Hey Caroline, what are you doing? Are you busy tonight?” He sounded so eager, so excited. The exact opposite of how she felt. She could really use a dose of whatever he was on.
“No, not really.” It was her night off, barely 10 o’clock, and she was bored and lonely already. The night stretched before her like an interminable tunnel.
“Great! Then I want you to come with me to a party.”
“A party? What kind of party?”
Houston laughed, his voice gratingly happy, like too-bright sunshine. “You know — beer, loud music, people hanging out and having fun — a party.”
“I don’t know.” She hadn’t been to a party since high school. Was she too old for that kind of thing? She was only 22, but sometimes she felt more like she was 30.
“Oh, come on! What else do you have to do? It’ll be fun! You need to get out and shake off that funk.”
He was right, she was weighed down with a heavy layer of it that sapped her of all her strength. She doubted she had the energy to party, but at least it would be a distraction. She dragged her body upright to see if she could even stand. When she didn’t immediately topple, she wandered over to her closet.
“Okay, I guess I could go for a little while. Where’s it at?”
“Awesome! I’ll come pick you up.”
She grimaced and flicked through her clothes, wondering what people wore to parties nowadays. Her closet was 90% work clothes. “I’d rather drive myself, if you don’t mind.”
Houston chuckled. “Planning your getaway already?”
She smirked and pulled out a sexy, red silk tank she hadn’t worn in years. “Something like that.”
Houston gave her the address, and she promised to meet him there in half an hour. That didn’t give her much time to fuss with how she looked, but she didn’t really care. The only person she wanted to impress wouldn’t be there.
She swapped out her tee shirt for the loose, low-cut tank then pulled on some black leggings because squeezing into tight jeans seemed like too much work. Her hair was a mess, but it didn’t look dirty, so she brushed it then flipped her head upside down and shook it out. When she righted herself, the style looked intentionally messy. Perfect for a party. She gave it a heavy coating of hair spray and called it good.
She hadn’t bothered to take off her makeup from yesterday, and her mascara and eyeliner were smudged, but it worked with her look, and she didn’t care enough to wash it off and redo it. She brushed her teeth and swiped on some red lipstick.
She hadn’t worn jewelry in forever, but on a whim she opened up her mom’s old jewelry box and dug through the outdated costume jewelry she’d inherited. Her mom had a secret life as a punk rocke
r, and Caroline used to love to play dress up with her jewelry. With a grin, she pulled out a long necklace made of several different silver chains and hung it around her neck. The matching earrings dusted her shoulders when she hung them from her lobes.
A laugh burst out of her when she looked in the mirror, and the first real smile she’d had in weeks cracked her face. She looked ridiculous. She dug in her closet for a pair of black ankle boots and slipped them on then slung a crossbody purse over shoulder. Sticking her phone in her bag, she grabbed her keys and headed out, cranking up the radio to get herself in the party mood.
When she got to the address Houston had given her, the rundown, old house was teeming with cars and people. Anxiety ratcheted up in her chest. What was she doing here? She didn’t even know any of these people! She drove slowly past the house and scanned the cars, looking for Houston’s. Once she saw it, her tension eased a little. She pulled over and parked on the side of the road.
She’d find Houston, have a drink, hang out a little, dance if she felt up to it, go home if she didn’t. A group of people were on the scraggly lawn laughing, horsing around, and talking loudly, obviously drunk already.
“Hey baby! You here by yourself? Why don’t you come hang with us?” A skinny guy with a mangy beard and a half-unbuttoned plaid shirt waved a beer at her. The skanky-looking girl beside him slugged his shoulder. Caroline hurried past them without making eye contact.
The front door was open, so she walked inside, feeling like an intruder since she didn’t even know who owned the place. She garnered a few curious looks, and a few guys tried to talk to her, but she ignored them and pushed through the crowd, looking for Houston.
The scent of beer, sex, and marijuana smoke clouded the air, layered over the rich scent of blood. She could smell it pulsing hot and hard under layers of sweaty skin. Loud rock music vibrated the dirty, battered walls and sticky floor, and people were grinding against each other in time to the music. The rooms were dark except for the blue glow of cell phone screens that cut weird, angled shadows, so it was hard to see much of anything, but Caroline caught glimpses of people making out.
She gasped when she saw a guy sink his fangs into a girl’s neck. The girl groaned and writhed in his arms, obviously enjoying it. Was that was people did at parties now? She knew there were plenty of humans who were curious about what it was like to be bitten by a vampire, and it wasn’t a surprise that there were vampires who fed on humans outside the clinic, but she never expected to see them doing it out in the open like this.
While she was staring at the couple, a hairy arm wrapped around her waist from behind and slid down the front of her leggings. “Hey sexy, you like what you see? That could be you, if you want.”
She grabbed his hand and whirled around, twisting his arm till the joint threatened to snap. “Don’t touch me!”
When she let go of his arm, the guy gawked at her and rubbed his wrist. “Holy shit, baby, you’re stronger than you look. Are you a vamp?”
She bared her fangs and hissed at him in response. He held up his hands and backed off, chuckling uneasily. “I respect that. I’m just looking to have a good time, and you seemed a little lonely. You change your mind, come find me, I’ll be around.”
Caroline curled her lip in disgust and stalked away, already regretting that she’d come. When she got to the kitchen, her eyes winced at the bright light over the sink. A couple guys were filling red, plastic cups from a beer keg.
“Can I get one of those?”
They looked up at her, raked their eyes up and down her body, then spread their lips in wide smiles.
“Sure, baby,” the cuter one said. The other one poured her a beer, and the first guy grabbed it and handed it to her. He didn’t let go when she wrapped her hand around it, just stepped close enough that their hips were almost touching. She swore to God, if he put a hand on her, she was going to dump the beer on his head.
Guys flirted with her at work a lot, but the bar kept them from getting too close, and being in a public place kept them from getting too out of line. If they did, the manager was happy to kick them out. But being here, it was like the men thought she was fair game. Did they really think that lewd come-ons would appeal to her? It made her appreciate the way Roric treated her. He might be a little bossy, but he didn’t treat her like a piece of meat.
She yanked the beer out of the guy’s hands and chugged it, eager for something to take the edge off. If she didn’t find Houston soon, she was going to leave feeling even more depressed and irritated than when she came.
The guy’s eyes widened. “Whoa, baby. Take it easy. There’s plenty more where that came from.”
“Good. Give me another.” She shoved the cup towards him. It took a lot of alcohol to relax a vampire.
“You want something a little stronger?”
She nodded, and he filled her cup again, this time pouring in a couple fingers of vodka. Several other empty bottles littered the counters. She downed half of her drink then walked away before the guy had a chance to hit on her again.
There was a hallway off the kitchen, so she followed it. She peeked into the first bedroom and jerked back when she saw a couple sprawled out on the bed, making out, but what they were saying drew her back in.
“You wanna be a vampire, baby? You wanna be this beautiful forever?” The man murmured in the girl’s ear, but Caroline’s vampire hearing could easily make it out.
The girl squirmed under him and clawed at his back. “Yes, yes! Bite me.”
The man lunged for her neck, raking it open with his fangs, then sucked hard. A few seconds later, he must’ve injected his venom, because the girl screamed and thrashed. The man tore open his wrist with his teeth then held it to the girl’s mouth. She grabbed ahold of it and sucked fervently.
“Caroline?” Houston’s voice snapped her out of her daze, and she whipped her head towards the sound.
He smiled as he checked her out. “Holy shit, you look hot. Nice outfit.”
He looked as sexy as he always did in his typical jeans and Astros shirt, but Caroline didn’t feel attracted to him like she had before. With Roric out of her life, she thought maybe she’d give Houston a chance, but even though they’d grown closer, he didn’t appeal to her like Roric did. Would she ever get over him?
She grabbed his arm and pulled him down the hallway. A couple was coming out of a bedroom, so she tugged Houston inside and shut the door. It smelled like sex, and the dirty bedding was rumpled. Houston glanced at it then smirked at her, but she ignored it.
“Houston, the vampires here are feeding off the humans, and that guy in the other bedroom just turned that girl!”
He grinned and quirked an eyebrow then leaned against a wobbly, pressboard dresser. “You’re surprised by this? You don’t get out much, do you?”
She gawked at him. “These vampires are rogues! I know there’s a lot of them, but what are you doing hanging out with them?”
He rolled his eyes. “Caroline, I know you’re used to hanging out with VEA agents, but most vampires aren’t like Roric. They drink from whoever will let them. What difference does it make as long as the human is willing?”
She held up her vodka-spiked beer. “Half these people are too drunk to know what they’re doing. I wouldn’t call that consent. And drinking from humans is bad enough, but turning them? That’s punishable by death!”
“Only if they get caught. And who’s going to turn them in? Not the human who wanted it. You need to face reality. Vampires are taking over. They don’t want to follow rules set by humans, and why should they?”
Caroline spun around and started pacing across the small space. She couldn’t believe a guy as clean-cut and all-American as Houston appeared to be could side with the rogues. “I can’t believe you’re talking like this. I thought you felt the same way as me.”
She whirled back around as a thought struck her. “Have you been drinking from humans?”
“Yeah, your friend, Piper. She’s
cool with it. You should take a lesson from her, lighten up a bit.” He tossed his golden hair like it was no big deal.
Caroline gasped. She knew Piper had fed him at the clinic, but had they been hooking up outside of it? A sickening thought popped into her head, and a chill raced down her back. Piper was desperate to become a vampire. Caroline dropped her cup on the dresser and grabbed Houston by the shoulders.
“Did she ask you to turn her?”
Houston shrugged her off. “No, but I will if she does. The application process is crap. Why do you think I was letting that vamp suck on me in the parking lot at the Taproom?”
Caroline stumbled backwards like he’d slapped her. He might as well have. “You wanted to be turned?”
He puffed up his chest and crossed his arms. “Of course. I let her bite me. I wasn’t fighting her off when you showed up.”
She felt dizzy all of a sudden, and the room started to spin around her, blurring her vision. She shook her head, trying to clear it, but it was all a jumbled mess. She put her hand on the back of a wooden chair nearby to steady herself then sat down and put her hands on her head.
“I’ve been helping you, and you’ve been lying to me this whole time? Sneaking behind my back? I never would’ve turned you if I thought you were going to become a rogue!”
Houston picked up her cup and downed the contents then wiped his lip with the back of his hand. “I didn’t know you were gonna be such a tight ass! Why can’t you just relax a little? You’re not even dating Roric anymore; you can do what you want. I was hoping maybe you and I could have something.”
“I don’t think I even want to be friends with you anymore, Houston.” She stood up and pulled her phone out of her purse, tapping on Roric’s name.
“Who are you calling?” Houston grabbed her arm, pulling it so he could see her phone. She hadn’t called yet, but Roric’s picture and contact info were on the screen.
“Roric? What are you calling him for? Are you telling him about the party?” Houston’s eyes darkened.
Obsessed with the Vampire: A Paranormal Romance (Vampire Enforcement Agency Book 2) Page 18