by Leia Shaw
Without another word he picked her up and forced her onto the fire escape. He wrapped an arm around her waist and jumped down the three flights landing with a soft thud. To her credit, Erin managed to hold in a scream and settled on a soft yelp instead. She looked up at him in awe, feeding his ego again. Instead of bowing like a gentleman, he bared his teeth and growled, hopefully sending a clear message. She should fear him enough to do as she was told, but know that he would never hurt her.
She opened her mouth to speak but cut off with a squeal when he pulled her hard against his body just as a Bolt soared at them from above. Pavement exploded into dozens of pieces, bouncing off the alley walls. Several pieces thudded against Marcelo’s back when he spun Erin around to avoid the spray.
“Sage can do that?” Erin muttered peeking over his shoulder.
Marcelo looked up to see the sorcerer who’d been passed out by the closet climbing onto the fire escape. Should have killed that one too. He scooped Erin up in his arms then sprinted towards the hotel taking a longer route in case anyone followed his trail. The injury on his back was ablaze, but he ignored it. Erin held still in his arms, her face nuzzled into his chest, her eyes squeezed shut. His body liked her there, which concerned him. Women, aside from Natalia, were only useful to Marcelo for sex and food. That was it. Not companionship. Not affection. And definitely not cuddling.
He set her down when they reached the hotel parking lot. She wobbled a bit on weak knees but pushed Marcelo’s steadying hands away.
After taking several deep breaths she stared down at the ground and whispered, “Is it so easy for you to kill?”
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to.”
Eyes glued to her feet, she nodded.
She was sad? He gave a frustrated sigh. Humans were pitiful creatures, with their bleeding hearts and leaky tear ducts. Always getting attached to things as insignificant as human life. “You would rather I’d have left them alive? So they could hunt you down and imprison you? Maybe even kill you? Gods, woman, you make no sense!”
“I live in the human world, you crazy vampire! This stuff doesn’t happen to me. It happens in movies, but never to me!”
“I’m sorry, querida.” His tone was mocking. “Had I known it would offend you so strongly I would have positioned the bodies to look like they were merely taking a nap.”
She narrowed her eyes and glared at him. “You’re making fun of me.”
“I am trying to find a way for us to work together. This is my life and it’s yours now too.” He took a step towards her. “It isn’t always going to be sunshine and puppy dogs. Death happens. Get over it.”
She inched closer to him, fists clenched. This had officially become a screaming match. “My life has never been sunshine and puppy dogs!”
“Good! Then we understand each other!” His bellow echoed in the empty night. He stomped the several steps to the hotel door pulling it open with more force than necessary. When he turned back around to hold it open for her, she was walking away. In the opposite direction.
He was in her path in less than a second. She jumped back at his sudden appearance then cast him a dirty look.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he demanded.
“I can’t do this anymore. Just…go away.” She shooed him with a wave of a hand.
A human? Shooing him like a pesky fly? He couldn’t remember a time that had ever happened.
“I’ll find Jimmy and we’ll go somewhere far away. I’ll change my name if I have to. But I can’t do this.” She tried to step around him but he moved with her, blocking her path.
“Erin,” he started, as patiently as he could, feeling tired and irritable with the coming dawn. “I understand your reluctance to travel with a vampire, but I’m afraid you have no choice in the matter. You are coming with me to safety and I won’t hesitate to force your compliance if necessary.” He said it softly but with a subtle menace under the lacy tones, just so she knew he was capable of following through.
She inhaled a sharp breath, fiery determination written all over her face. But before she could utter a single word, Marcelo dropped his voice to a dangerous whisper. “You have seen but a hint of what I am capable of, querida. Do not force me to show you the full arsenal of my power.”
Anger flashed in her eyes before his words sunk in. He could tell the moment she realized the truth – she was stuck with him, at his mercy in every way. Her face crumpled in utter defeat as her shoulders sagged. With her eyes on the ground she nodded slowly. He swallowed back a smile at her surrender.
“Good girl,” he said. Though he decided he liked the spitfire look of determination on her face, he was in no mood to carry her through the hotel kicking and screaming. “Come then.” He gestured towards the hotel door and followed closely behind as she entered the empty lobby.
Once they reached the hallway near their room, she took a small pill bottle out of her back pocket and popped the cap.
He grabbed her wrist before she swallowed anything. “What is this?” he asked.
“My medicine. I need it.” She pulled away from his grasp with an icy glare. “It will help me relax. Help me deal with…” her hand motioned up and down his body, “all of this.”
He scowled down at her but didn’t interfere while she swallowed two pills without water. If she were his, he’d be flushing that bottle of pills right down the toilet, along with any liquor he found.
“What happens when you no longer have access to those little pills of yours?”
“I’ll always have access. It’s called a prescription. I don’t suppose vampires have use for them.”
“We don’t,” he confirmed. “But even if we did, we are strong enough to stand on our own two feet, without the help of artificial courage.”
She exaggerated a scoff but he could sense the embarrassment underneath it. She didn’t like being weak. Good. Unhappiness was motivation for change. Before entering their hotel room he pressed Erin up against the wall. “Stay here.”
He was silent entering the room. A deadly hunter. Once he knew it was safe, he closed the curtains then waved Erin inside and locked the door behind her.
“When do we leave?” he asked.
“The day after tomorrow. Are you going to do something with the bodies?”
“Two days?” He ignored her question. “So late? Why not tomorrow?”
“They didn’t have anything tomorrow. I got the earliest flight I could.” She yawned, reminding him how human she was. The poor girl was probably exhausted. “Believe me, I want this over with just as quickly as you do.”
He gave her a weighted glare. “So flying to Colorado isn’t going to be any shorter than driving?”
She grew defensive at his glower. “No, but at least we’re not stuck in a six by four box for three days! I think I’d drive off a cliff!”
“You would not be driving.”
She rolled her eyes. “Then I’d sing something really annoying over and over until you drove off a cliff.”
“Nothing is that annoying.”
An eyebrow arched, her eyes full of challenge. “No?” Then she started singing, loudly, “What’s New Pussycat?” and he began to wonder if this was some cruel joke by the gods meant to test him.
“Enough.” His voice sounded like the crack of a whip even to him.
Her mouth snapped shut. She’d live another night. He plopped down onto the bed wishing he could finally catch a full day’s sleep.
Erin’s gasp snapped him to attention. Something on the bed behind him caught her gaze.
Mierda! He’d forgotten about his injury. A bright red puddle of blood stained the blanket beneath him.
“You’re bleeding!”
“Shh!” he hissed, aware the walls were thin around them. Too tired to care about ruining the blanket – he’d leave money for it when they checked out – he didn’t bother moving from the bed.
“Should we do something?”
He gave her
a sideways glance. “Would you like to stitch it up?”
She shook her head.
“Then leave it be. It will heal on its own.”
“Does it hurt?” She winced as though she were the one hit by the Bolt.
“Pure electrical energy blasted a hole through my skin, of course it bloody hurts!”
She flinched and he regretted yelling at her. It wasn’t her fault. None of this was her fault yet he couldn’t stop his conflicted feelings about her. Part of him wanted to hate her for stopping his hunt for Natalia. Another part admired her compassion, her concern for the welfare of others. Yet another part, probably the biggest part, just wanted to throw her onto the bed and take out his frustration on her sweet little body until she thrashed beneath him, screaming his name. He needed to get away from her before he did something he would regret.
“We’ll buy supplies while we’re here and I’ll get a potion for daylight,” he told her. “Now go get cleaned up.” He nodded towards the bathroom. “I’m not traveling with a sorry looking female like yourself. You smell like alcohol and desperation.”
***
Sorry looking?
Erin’s eyebrows shot up at his audacity. “Well, you’re certainly ballsy. Didn’t anyone ever tell you, you catch more flies with honey?”
He leaned forward, and, with a seductive half-smile, he whispered, “I have no idea what you just said, but the thought of you and honey is –”
She put a hand up to stop him. “That’s not what the saying means.”
What was it about men that made them so horny after witnessing anything violent? Her previous boyfriends had the same reaction. It was like Pavlov’s dog. Hear a bell, want food. See a bloody movie, want to get laid.
Even more curious, why did the sudden visual of him dripping honey onto her nude body just pop in her mind? Erin was not a sexual person by any means. For the past few years she’d tolerated sexual acts as an unfortunate side-effect of having a boyfriend. But she never had sex with them. No, she had to protect herself. She’d been hurt too many times to trust men. Her past boyfriends had grown frustrated with her lack of willingness to put out. But she made up for it in other ways. Too bad they didn’t. But that’s just how men were, right? She wondered if Marcelo was different. Would he care enough about her pleasure to be sure she climaxed too?
He looked like he was undressing her with his eyes again. Why did she feel her nipples harden at the thought? She resisted the urge to cover herself under his heated gaze. Their eyes locked in some sort of seductive stare down.
Then he just shrugged, leaning back against the pillows. One hand rested behind his head, his legs stretched out and crossed at the ankle. How very…male. She tilted her head as she studied him. His biceps bulged under his shirt and she had the sudden urge to lick them. What is wrong with me? He was a murderer. A dangerous, predatory criminal and here she was looking at him like he was a piece of meat.
Then he closed his eyes as if he didn’t have a care in the world. As if he hadn’t just killed at least three men and left them dead in her apartment. Without even bothering to open his eyes he said, “Well if you aren’t going to keep my interest with honey, go take a shower. We’ll get you new clothes tomorrow.”
It was times like this Erin wished she could be more like Sage – who said and did whatever she wanted with no concern for the consequences. Sage was a stick of dynamite, everyone else the match. “Flying Fists” they’d called her when they shared a foster home as kids. It had been Erin who talked her out of trouble over and over again. She was a peacemaker. A diplomat. One foster mother had dubbed her “The Walking Mouth”. It was a result of having moved from foster home to foster home. She’d had to figure out a way to get along with parents of every kind, including one set of lesbians, two single moms, and three couples who were over the age of sixty. So it came as a surprise that this vampire had managed to wriggle his way under her skin in such a short amount of time.
“What kind of supplies do we need?” she asked, ignoring his demand to take a shower. Although she wanted one, she’d go on her terms.
“Backpacks, hiking gear.” Finally he opened his eyes to give her outfit a once over. “Clothing that won’t fall apart at the slightest assault of a twig.”
“Hiking gear?” She grimaced. “Nature? Camping?”
He nodded.
Erin had lived her whole life in the city, had no desire to change that. She was uncomfortable even walking through the park when it hadn’t been mowed in a couple weeks. How would she deal with hiking in the Colorado Mountains?
“It’s a two day trek through the Rockies to get to the…” He cut off suspiciously. “To get to Sage.”
“Are you sure Sage is in Colorado?” She arched a brow. “It’s a little hard to believe.”
“I didn’t say she was in Colorado, I said we are going to Colorado to get to her.”
“Is there a difference?”
“Yes. Now stop stalling and go get cleaned up.” When she didn’t move he followed it with an intimidating, “Now.”
With an irritated grumble and her best killer glare, she said, “You are infuriating.”
He flashed an unrepentant smirk. “Yes. And I only get worse.”
Ballsy! She wanted to throw something at him – that’s what Sage would have done. So why did she find herself moving to the bathroom door, towel in hand?
Yes, Erin had always been the level-headed one. But Marcelo better watch out because this walking mouth was ready to bite.
***
As soon as he heard the shower turn on, Marcelo was up and out the door. He ran to Erin’s apartment to pick up the car. The bodies were gone, taken by the sorcerers, which meant he was off the hook for clean-up duty. He was uncomfortable having sorcerers in the city, so close on their trail. Logically he knew he should hunt them down, but leaving Erin alone in the hotel room didn’t appeal to him either. Not just because there was a chance – albeit a slim one – that the sorcerers would find her, but he didn’t trust the woman to stay in the room if left to her own devices. He could already tell she was trouble.
On the drive back to the hotel, Marcelo reached for his phone and dialed Sage’s number. She and James were still in Wales awaiting Marcelo’s delivery of the sister. Now he had to explain that he’d somehow forgotten how to traverse. Not only that, but they would be flying in an airplane, then backpacking into the Rockies, most likely with sorcerers trailing them, while he toted her very fragile, very mortal, beloved sister. This should be interesting.
“Is everything okay?” Sage’s voice came through on the second ring.
Her voice was tight with worry, which meant she would be a bitch to deal with. Thank gods for her mate, James. He was her balance in every way. And although Marcelo and Sage were friends, most of the time James was easier to deal with. Especially when it came to matters of the heart.
“Why didn’t you tell me your sister has social anxiety?” he asked.
Silence, then, “Oh. That.”
“Yes, that.”
“Because I knew you wouldn’t help me.”
“You’re damn right! I don’t know what to do with her. I’m not a goddamn therapist!”
“I know, I know,” she said quieter. “Please Marcelo. You’re the only one I trust to take care of her. Just traverse with her now. We’re in –”
“I can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t?”
“I mean I can’t! Something’s happened to my ability.”
“Have you traversed Topside before?”
“Of course,” he snapped. “How else would I look for…” He trailed off. He was in no mood to talk about Natalia. “My quest.”
“Uh-huh,” she said and he could picture her rolling her eyes. “Well, I don’t know why it’s not working. You haven’t messed with any witches lately, have you?”
“Of course not! Bloody she-devils,” he muttered.
“Hey, watch it!” Marcelo sometimes forgot hi
s queen was also part witch. “Well, you’ll just have to bring her the mortal way. We could meet you at an airport in Wales.”
“We have no passports!” he growled, growing weary of her assuming attitude.
“Look. You’re a smart guy. Just take care of her.” Her tone was casual until she snapped, “But if you touch a single hair on her –”
“Reina,” he grated, using the formal word for “queen” in his language, “you best put your mate on the phone.”
He heard rustling in the background and James said, “Give me that!” More rustling, then his smooth voice was on the other end. “I’m here, Marcelo.”
“James? I’ve lost the ability to traverse, but there’s a door to the Underworld in Colorado. We’ll board a plane the day after tomorrow then hike into the Rockies. I think this particular door drops in the middle of demon territory.”
“How long do you think it will take you to get there?”
“We fly in two days. It’s a two day hike at least. An extra day to find the door.”
“Five days and we’ll meet you in the demon lands,” James said. “All right?”
“All right.”
He hung up the phone. Men were so much easier to talk to.
Chapter 3
Erin took her time in the shower, reflecting on the night’s events. Reality hadn’t quite hit yet. One minute she was a college student taking evening and online courses in business management, and now she was fleeing to Colorado with a vampire while sorcerers tried to kidnap her. Although she’d grown up in foster care, being moved from home to home, her life had been relatively quiet. She’d never been in trouble. She didn’t break rules. She wasn’t the adventurous type. But now there was a supernatural equivalent of a hit out on her life. What would they do to her if they caught her? She shuddered. She didn’t want to know.
And what about Jimmy? Why couldn’t she take him with her to Sage? What was Marcelo hiding? How she wished Jimmy was here with her. Or Sage. Or someone remotely reassuring who would pat her back and tell her everything would be okay. She had a feeling, as hot as Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Brooding was, he wasn’t the hand-holding type.