Caught in Darkness (16 page)

The car eased to a stop, jarring
Veronica from her thoughts and letting her know that they’d arrived at her
house. She glanced sidelong at Seth as they reached for their seatbelts, but he
didn’t seem to be moving slower or more carefully than usual. Oh, he’s good.

Seth fell back as they approached
the front door, allowing her to lead the way inside. When she was standing in
the entry, holding the door wide open, she gestured toward the couch and
declared, “Make
yourself
comfortable.”

He nodded and moved past her, and
as he walked she studied his stride. She couldn’t seem to find anything wrong
with that, either.
Though she might possibly have been
distracted when her eyes lingered below his waist.
Shaking her head at
herself, Veronica shut and locked her door out of reflex before following him
to the living room. He was already sitting on one side of the couch, one arm
propped on the arm of the sofa and legs stretched out. It was hard to ignore
how good he looked sitting there, but the large spot of what had to be blood on
his shirt did a lot to help her focus.

Their gazes locked for a second
(he’d taken his sunglasses off in his car), and she took a deep breath before
saying, “All right, lose the shirt.”

He lifted an eyebrow, seemingly
surprised by her demand, but pushed back to his feet obligingly. Using both
hands he grabbed the hem of his stained black t-shirt and lifted it over his
head fluidly. As his arms fell back to his sides he balled the shirt up in one
fist, holding on to it. “Care to tell me why I’m undressing?” he asked, trace
amounts of teasing in his voice.

Veronica swallowed heavily at the
sight before her. She had been able to tell—through his tight shirts—that his
muscles were Hollywood-perfect, but seeing them in action as he’d moved was a
whole other thing. His chest was just as lightly-tanned as the rest of him,
with not a spot of hair to be found, and it made her mouth water. She wanted to
run her fingers around each contour—and, if she were being honest, she wholly
intended to follow that trail with her lips and tongue if she ever got the
chance.

It was an effort to remember his
question, and her gaze lifted back to his for a moment as heat rushed to her
cheeks. His eyes, in fact, his entire expression, were lightened with laughter.
Though whether he was enjoying her embarrassment or her distraction remained to
be seen. Still, she found her voice and replied, “I’m going to make my own
opinion of whether or not you’re ‘fine’.”

Her eyes had dropped back to his
chest—supposedly looking for the hole that she already knew wasn’t there—when
his resulting chuckle reached her ears and it occurred to her how else her
words could be interpreted. She wasn’t sure she’d blushed so badly since she’d
been partnered with her high
school crush
for a
project in her sophomore year. Clearing her throat she attempted to contort her
face into a glare as she said, “You know what I meant!”

Seth swallowed the rest of his
laughter and lifted his free hand, his index finger lightly prodding the
blemished circle of skin where the stake had once been, and he asked, “What’s
your verdict, then, Dr. Wyndham?”

Veronica sobered, her flush fading,
and stepped closer to get a better look. The skin was red and looked sore, and
it was obvious that he was being careful to touch it lightly. But it was also
whole—lending credence to his insistence that he was all right. Her voice was
soft when she asked, “Does it hurt?”

“To the touch, yes,” Seth replied
honestly. “And it would probably feel like it was pulling too tight if I tried
to lift anything. But that should all fade in a couple of hours.”

“Wow,” Veronica breathed, one hand
reaching out without thought and letting her fingertips trail just around the
wound. “You were
right,
you do heal faster than me.”

“Veronica,” Seth
murmured,
his voice almost a groan.

She froze, her body warming at the
tone of his voice, and lifted her gaze up to his. He was watching her with a
poorly-concealed, heated look in his eyes. Her own eyes darted back down, to
her hand, and she was blushing all over again as she snatched it back. “Oh! I’m
so sorry!”

“Don’t apologize,” Seth grunted,
reaching out and snatching her nearest wrist with his free hand. He tugged her
forward, against his chest, and bowed his head until their noses were touching
before adding, “You just need to be careful with what you do around me.”

Before she could respond to his
words, her lips were against his and she was moaning into his mouth. He
released her wrist in favor of wrapping his arm around her waist and hauling
her closer, so she snaked her arms up and around his neck. She had barely laced
her fingers through his hair before his tongue was in her mouth and dancing
with hers for the first time in far too long.

She felt like she was on fire as
they kissed, her knees very nearly buckling as her body begged for him to touch
her—kiss her—everywhere. She couldn’t think clearly as he rolled his tongue
along hers, his hand clamped firmly over her opposite hip and his bare chest
pressed against her covered one. Her clothes were too constricting and his were
too concealing and if he made love like he kissed she would never even be able
to look at another man. She desperately wanted to find out.

But then it was over and Seth had
pulled away, leaving her standing alone in front of her couch. Her mind was
slow to catch up to the disappointing new reality and she barely turned around
in time to see him—shirt back in place—reaching for the door. “Wait,” she
called, trying to ignore the stinging in her chest. “Seth.”

He stopped, arm falling back to his
side, but didn’t turn around. “This is a bad idea. You know it as well as I
do
.”

“Bad ideas are all relative,”
Veronica argued.

His shoulders slumped as if he had
sighed, though she didn’t hear anything, and he said, “Veronica, think about
it. I’m a vampire. I’m immortal; I’m damned hard to kill; I have a dangerous
job that’s earned me my share of enemies; and, right now, I’m hungry. That’s
what happens when we get hurt. We get weaker, especially if we lose any blood,
and we need to feed.”

Not sure what to reply to first,
Veronica asked, “What are you saying? That I’m not strong enough for you? That
I’m not intelligent enough to understand what this is and what it could never
be?”

This time she did hear the sigh and
he turned half around, enough to look at her, as he said, “No. You’re plenty
strong enough, in every way. What I’m saying is that, eventually, you’d regret
it. And, in the meantime, I would probably bite you. That’s why I can’t stay.”

It took her just long enough to
figure out her response to that for him to turn again and pull the door open,
but when she called out for him she couldn’t make her feet move. “Seth!”

“I’ll see you later, Veronica. Stay
safe,” he called back without breaking stride. He pulled the door shut behind
him and then he was gone.

****

“That was too close,” Richards
growled as he, Tobias, and Troy settled in Troy’s apartment. It was a temporary
place to rest, of course, since the entire Family was hunting them; the sun was
just too bright out that day for them to keep moving.

“Tell me about it,” Troy exclaimed
as he sank into his old sofa. His head was back, eyes closed, as he focused on
regulating his breathing.

Tobias settled on the couch beside
his brother, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees as he
suggested, “Maybe it’s time to cut our losses and leave town. It’s getting
awfully dangerous out there.”

Richards cut a glare at him from
the chair he’d claimed and declared, “Absolutely not! We’re not leaving town
until that fucking bitch is dead.”

Troy lifted his head, staring
aghast at Richards, and said, “But there’s a Slayer in town now! Do you want to
die?”

Richards scoffed, shifting his
glare to the other brother. “Don’t be an idiot, Wilson. Having a Slayer in town
doesn’t mean we’re going to die, it just means we have to play a little more
cautiously.”

Keeping his tone even, Tobias
asked, “And what’s cautious about throwing our original plans to the wind in
favor of stalking and slaughtering one pointless human?”

“That ‘pointless human’ ruined our
original plans!” Richards exclaimed angrily, hands curling into fists. “Everything
was in place until she fucked it up! And she didn’t even get the hint!”

“Yeah,” Troy began carefully, “but—”

“No buts!” Richards interrupted, angrily
rising to his feet. “If you two cowards don’t like it, then bail; I don’t care.
But I’m not leaving this rotten city until I’ve bled that bitch dry.”

Troy stared, wide-eyed, at Richards
for a long moment before looking over at his brother.

Tobias was watching Richards, his
expression unreadable, until he slowly nodded his head.
“All
right.
I said I was on board, so let’s do it.”

“I hate to point this out,” Troy
hedged, “but…won’t they look for us here?”

Scoffing again, Richards rolled his
eyes and replied, “We won’t be here by nightfall, moron. We’re just catching
our breath.”

****

Veronica spent most of Monday the
way she had spent the rest of her Sunday—lost in thought. Seth’s parting words
were still ringing in her head and she was constantly going up and down with
her reactions. She didn’t care that he was immortal, and she understood that
anything that happened between them couldn’t be anything more than a fling. But
she was starting to worry that she wouldn’t be satisfied with that. The idea of
him walking out of her life—which she knew was inevitable—was heartbreakingly
unbearable. A sharp, stabbing pain seared her heart at the
very
thought.

But that wasn’t really what was
holding her attention so thoroughly. It was the biting thing. As soon as he’d
said it a strange sort of excited anticipation had bubbled up inside of her. She’d
been rather thrown off when she identified the feeling, and she’d spent hours
arguing with herself over how she should and should not feel. Of course she
should be horrified and sick to the stomach over the idea of someone—anyone—drinking
her blood. Only…she wasn’t. Some deep, primal, twisted part of her actually
wanted to know what it was like.

Not to mention, when he’s hurt, he
could come to me for rejuvenation. That thought got her every time.

She was still giving far too much
thought to everything that wasn’t really happening between them when her phone
rang late that afternoon, and she was so distracted that she forgot to look at
the Caller ID before answering.

“Hi, sweetheart,” Carol greeted on
the other end of the line.

Her mother’s unexpected voice
snapped her straight out of her thoughts, even bringing a level of guilt to the
surface, as if she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
“Hey, Mom.”
They’d only spoken once since Friday, over the
phone, but it had been a good talk.

“How are you doing?” Carol asked.

That’s an amazing question. “I’m
doing all right.” If you don’t count that I think I’m falling in love with a
vampire I really haven’t known long enough to feel like this toward.

“That’s good.” Carol paused, and
for the first time Veronica became suspicious. She was suddenly thinking there
was an alternative reason for her mother’s call. Carol sighed audibly, then,
and said, “I hate to ask this of you, Veronica, but could you come over? It’s
important.”

“What’s going on?” Veronica asked,
alarm bells blaring in her head. Her first thought was that maybe her mother
was trying to set her up with Cliff again—and how awkward would that be? But
then there was something about the way her mother had phrased the request that
made it sound…different. And suddenly she was worried as all sorts of gruesome,
terrifying images filled her mind. “You know what?” she added quickly, “It
doesn’t matter. I’ll be right over.”

Relief in her voice, Carol said,
“Oh, thank you. I’m so sorry if I’m interrupting anything.”

“You’re not, don’t worry,” Veronica
replied brightly. “See you soon.” That was the one thing she’d actually been
productive with that day, at least. She’d finally gotten her replacement
license and no longer had to rely on other people or public transportation.

****

There was an unfamiliar vehicle in
her mother’s driveway when Veronica pulled in a short while later and she
frowned. She’d never seen Cliff’s car, but her gut told her that he didn’t
drive an old, banged up Chevy pickup.
Definitely not Cliff,
then.
And as much as she wanted to, she couldn’t bring herself to feel
relieved. At least the Cliff situation she could figure out how to handle;
whatever was going to happen inside that house, however, she wasn’t sure.

She checked her purse for the third
time,
to be absolutely certain that her pepper-spray
hadn’t mysteriously disappeared, and returned her cell to her pocket before
climbing from her car. Not for the first time since her mother’s call did she
debate the wisdom of not calling Seth. But she didn’t want to assume it was
trouble when it could be any number of things, and she didn’t want her mother
to ask the questions she would definitely ask if she laid eyes on Seth. For one
thing, she had no idea how to answer those questions.

Releasing a deep sigh, she stepped
into her mother’s house, eased the door shut and called, “Mom? I’m here.”

The sound of padded footsteps
echoed down the hall a moment before Carol replied, “Oh, you made excellent
time!” She was standing in the archway between the foyer and the hall by the
time the words were out of her mouth, a smile on her face but an odd weight
dimming her eyes.