Blood and Destiny (8 page)

“Whoa, whoa. No harm, no foul and no biting.”

Instincts warred as I forced myself to calm down. My heart settled and I took a deep breath. The soft scent of roses, mint and lion was a balm against the fear. I tossed my head back and let go of the remaining rush of adrenaline. One day soon, I was going to have to drive up to the forest and let the lioness have her turn or situations like this were going to bring on a shift I wouldn’t be able to stop.

“What happened?” Luke’s tone was soothing, but there was an undercurrent of a low growl. The lioness stretched against the tight leash in response.

“Nothing. Wait. Wait. Just give me a moment.”

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Standing up, I kicked the heels off to stalk around the room. It took several turns before I had a firm grasp on myself. Turning back, I found Luke leaning against the doorframe waiting with a patience I couldn’t help but admire. He simply raised an eyebrow.

“Okay. When you got here, did you see a reject from a Pink Panther film on the street? Come out the door? Any clue?”

“Pink Panther? You’ll have to be a little more specific.”

“Fedora, trench coat, gloves and sunglasses? Not ringing a bell?”

He shook his head and I cursed.

“Let me start at the beginning. I had a strange visitor. A vampire old enough to be sensitive to sunlight strolled through that door and I didn’t see him leave.”

“Is this related to a case?”

“Maybe. He left a note. He zaps me into oblivion and leaves me a blasted note.” I took the paper and waved it at him. When I made no effort to bring it to him, he crossed the floor with easy grace to take it from me. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have shared, but I was rattled beyond client confidentiality. It only took him a moment to grasp the consequences.

“So, you’re working a missing-person case and this guy strolls in and gives you the proverbial gift horse. The problem is?”

He didn’t see the problem? Of course he didn’t because I hadn’t given him the full story. I was going to have to tell my potential suitor about my destructive relationship tendencies. Well, the beginning had been promising while it lasted.

“The problem is that he came out of curiosity because I’ve got this thing with the local vampire king. He apparently wanted to see what the fuss was all about.”

“You’re in a relationship with a vampire?” He managed to make it a polite question without any obvious effort.

“No. Well, not anymore. Marcus and I have this thing…on again, off again. I called it off for good a few months ago, but this case sent me back to ask him for information. I’m trying to find a woman I’m not sure really wants to be found. She was last seen with a young vampire.”

I was babbling. I paused and tried to collect myself.

“I take it Yasmine doesn’t approve of Marcus?” His voice held laughter. In my frazzled state, I was having a hard time finding humor in anything. I glared at him until he forced it away.

“No. Well, actually, it’s not Marcus she didn’t approve of. It’s my inability to relate to men on any type of long-term basis. You’re her attempt to engage any latent mating urges that might exist in my dysfunctional psyche.”

“I see.”

I searched his face for some sort of outrage. In his position, I would have been livid at Yasmine’s manipulation and me for going along with it. It simply wasn’t there. I had an awful thought.

“You knew.”

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“No,” he corrected. “I suspected. The marks on your neck were the first clue. I’m not so sheltered as to be ignorant of how vampires generally pay for their meals.” Oh, man. The situation was going from bad to worse.

“No. That isn’t what happened. He fed. That’s it. We didn’t… I said no.”

“Did you mean it?” Luke asked.

“No?” I wasn’t sure how to answer. My tone firmed as I went on before he had a chance to interrupt. “Yes. I’m attracted, but…” I struggled to figure out how to explain the bite without looking like I was making a play for him. “I walked away from the relationship because it was time to move on with my life. Being a woman on his string wasn’t doing it for me anymore. I wanted more.”

“But he wants back in your life?”

Luke’s tone was soft. I nodded, turning away from true fear of what I might see in his face. I’d gotten used to the condescension in Yasmine’s. Pulling the card from my pocket, I tossed it on the desk where he could read it. Sitting behind my desk, I crossed my legs and waited for the inevitable.

“I see. Is he your normal escort for late-night hell visits?”

I jerked my head up and searched his face. Wishing I knew him well enough to interpret his expressions, I shook my head.

“You can’t take the man who makes the rules and enforces them to a hell. Everyone would run away. Hells aren’t my normal haunts, anyway.”

“So what do I need to wear? You can’t go in there alone.”

I stared for a heartbeat before I cracked up. “Taking you would be providing another meal in there.”

“Destiny, you’re hard on a man’s ego. Don’t underestimate me because I’m a nice guy. I’m a lion and can be as fierce as I need to be.”

I gazed at him as he planted his knuckles on the edge of my desk and leaned over. He went from sweet and determined to imposing in two seconds flat. Magic swirled around us and I checked myself. His eyes shone with a gold ring and something flared deep inside his gaze. His voice was a low growl as he asked the obvious question.

“When was the last time you changed?”

“About three weeks ago and it’s irrelevant.” Even I heard the lie. With a male lion spreading pheromones all over the place, when I changed last was definitely relevant.

“Why are you running from me, Destiny?”

“I’m not.” I wasn’t in the habit of lying, but apparently it was a day of exceptions.

“You left the restaurant without so much as a brush-off.”

“Leaving without saying goodbye was the brush-off, Luke.” I made my tone bored with some

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effort. This lion may not have tripped my switches right off the bat, but he was growing on me. He certainly appealed to my animal side, which didn’t bode well for my peace of mind.

“No, that’s a way to see how interested I am in pursuit.” His answer earned him a very unladylike snort.

“That’s a pretty egomaniacal statement, Luke. Have you stopped to consider that I may not want another unavailable man chasing after me?”

“I can assure you that I’m very available.”

“Oh, please.” I didn’t bother to lean away from his looming posture. “You don’t live here.”

He narrowed his eyes as he stared down with his nostrils flaring. With visible effort, he shoved himself off the desk and stomped across the room to stand beside the roses. Just when I was ready to warn him about breaking the vase, he moved on to pace across to the front windows. His tone was back to calm joviality when he finally spoke over his shoulder. Apparently, he wasn’t a man who needed much time to collect himself. A fact worth noting down for later reference.

“Do you want me to go with you to the hell or not? If you’ve got someone else you can take, I’ll bow out. Yasmine will skin me for a rug if I leave you to go alone.”

He had a point. Standing up, I walked to the front door, expecting him to follow. He didn’t disappoint. I leaned against the doorway as he strode from my office to stand in the hallway.

“Meet me here an hour early and wear something that doesn’t paint a target on your neck.” The words left my mouth before I had a chance to think about the consequences.

He simply nodded as he stepped through the doorway. I closed the door behind him, doing my best not to notice or to care that he stood there listening to me lock the door and set the alarm. He was still standing on the sidewalk when I turned and walked to the back of the house to go upstairs.

Somewhere between the shower to wash off the makeup and hair junk, and my closet for more serviceable clothes, my personality returned. With it came several interesting revelations. The first, and far from the most important, was that Luke had read the note and instantly known it was a hell.

How could anyone associated with werewolves, who were about as straight-laced and conservative as they got, also be associated with vampire hells?

My surprise visitor had to be the one who’d visited Betsy Vincent on the day she disappeared. The odds of having two vampires old enough to have mastered that particular skill were slim to none.

I couldn’t even remember his face. It had seemed familiar. I knew that much, but not even his eye color sprang to mind. Eyes were my weakness. I was a sucker for a pair of pretty eyes.

It sent a whole new shiver down my spine as I stood in my room made dark by blackout curtains.

With some effort, I pushed the disturbing thoughts aside and managed to make a plan of action.

Idleness didn’t go well with my current state of paranoia. I needed to be somewhere else if he decided he wanted to come back for another chat.

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With that in mind, I moved to my closet and surveyed my clothes. I’m not a clotheshorse, so it wasn’t a large selection of options suitable for a stroll down to the seedier side of town. Worn jeans and a T-shirt with a bronze mock-turtleneck collar high enough to hide the marks from last night were about it. I didn’t want to get mugged, but I didn’t want to look like I was a regular either.

Locking the door behind me, I trotted down the back stairs. Traffic was as atrocious as usual, but my mind was awhirl with the details from my case and that kept me occupied as I crept along toward the beaches. Slowly, traffic thinned until the streets were nearly empty and the buildings were covered in graffiti. Finding parking wasn’t a problem. The meter was broken, but I doubted any cops were patrolling down here.

Locking the door seemed like a waste of time, but I did it anyway. It wasn’t like my Chevy was a prime catch. If a thief wanted it, my paltry alarm wouldn’t have been a deterrent. Since I wanted my hands free in case I needed them, the copies of the photos of Betsy and her mysterious lover were stashed in a messenger bag along with a sizeable cash donation for my source. I hurried onto the sidewalk and strode down it purposefully. If luck was on my side, my source was still spending his days in the alley beside the pastry shop.

Even though I couldn’t see anyone in the shop windows, I felt people watching me as I walked away from my car. Stopping to look at a drum display in a pawnshop window, I used the reflection to observe the street behind me. A shaggy blond head peered around the corner of the alley. Diesel Dan was a junkie. Somewhere in his mind warped by addiction, he had decided he wanted to be anything but what he was. It had taken me weeks to convince him that he wouldn’t turn into a lion if I bit him. It had taken Kale to convince him that he couldn’t live in the alley by my building in hopes I’d change my mind.

Even if it were possible to contaminate someone like that, I wouldn’t have. I just didn’t trust his sanity that far.

Diesel Dan had moved on to the vampires when he realized it was possible to be transformed by one of them. Every time I came down here, I half expected to find his corpse waiting for me.

Marcus had the same reservations I did about his state of mind and passed the order that he was not to be brought over.

So that left Diesel Dan lurking on the fringes of the underground, which made him an excellent source of information. Provided, of course, he was willing to talk to me. The last couple of times I’d come calling, he had still been mad at me.

Turning slowly, I didn’t look away from his reflection until I could meet his gaze directly. This time, he didn’t dart back into the alley like he had during my last attempted visit. I watched him and waited for a sign that he would be willing to talk. He cocked his head like a bird, obviously listening to the voices in his head. After a moment, he backed a step into the shadows and waved me over.

It took some fancy footwork to get across the street without becoming roadkill, but I managed.

Stepping past the opening and walking toward him took more faith than I wanted to admit. He couldn’t hurt me, but I didn’t want to startle him and have him lash out. If he did, I would have to defend myself. That would end badly. I needed information, not to hurt one of the only informants with total access to the underworld. There were benefits to being considered certifiably insane.

People, no matter the distinction, managed to ignore you to the point they forgot you were there.

My gaze drifted to the fresh bite marks over his relatively clean T-shirt. He had recently bathed, but his hair was the same oily blond shag. Someone was trying to take care of him it seemed.

“Hey, Dan. How are you?”

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He looked at me with piercing blue eyes vacant of true understanding. Dan concentrated on listening to something I couldn’t hear and nodded slowly to himself. When he finally spoke, it was slow and deliberate even if it didn’t make a lot of sense. A direct contrast from the wild, rambling way of speaking to which I had grown accustomed.

“I’m good. I’m better than I used to be. Caroline likes me to be at my best. I’m trying to be worthy. I am.”

I hoped Caroline was the vamp he was feeding. I made a mental note to check up on her. His hand drifted to his neck and I slowly reached up to tug down the collar of my own shirt. Diesel Dan’s expression lit up and I was instantly forgiven all wrongs he might have imagined.

“You understand. You do.” His voice was rapturous. “But you must be careful. Someone wants you. He wants you bad. He told everyone he would give anything he could to have you.”

“Who wants me, Dan?” I asked carefully.

“The big bad vampire that lurks in the shadows. He’s been asking about you. Caroline told me not to tell him anything. I didn’t, I swear.”