Dark Ghost (34 page)

It is possible. I could take you into the corner and make it so no one would see us, but I prefer to have you stretched out under me for a long time, showing you how I feel.
 

It was possible? Yikes.
Um. I think that was a “be careful for what you wish for” moment. I like the idea of being stretched out under you and lots of time.
Just the thought sent a very pleasant pulse through her sex.

The music stopped and then started again into a fast number. Andre immediately moved her through the crowd back toward the table. This time, he kept her in front of him, one arm wrapped tightly around her waist, locking her to him. Once again, something in his eyes and the set of his jaw had the crowd parting. He did it smoothly, yet he didn’t use his ability to “push” anyone to move – they just did.

He held her chair for her, but his gaze swept the room while he did it. Teagan sank into the seat and picked up her water glass. Both of the glasses holding alcohol were empty, as if they had already drank them. She knew Andre had done that, a slow lowering of the liquid, but she wasn’t certain how.

“I will be back shortly,” he murmured.

She blinked and he was already gone. Instantly she was uneasy. He moved with fluid grace through the crush of people and tables. She sat back and observed him. He was beautiful, and she wasn’t the only woman in the room to think so. He walked right up to an older man who was sporting a full beard and wore rough clothes. He looked like he lived on the mountain and had for most of his life.

Andre clapped him on the back as if they were old friends. The bearded man turned to him and smiled, and they began an animated conversation. After a few minutes, Andre left the mountain man with a new drink and wandered over to a well-dressed man sitting at a table with a dark-haired woman – a woman whose eyes devoured Andre.

Teagan studied the woman. Curvy. Of course. As in
lots
of curves. She bit her lip. The woman looked confident and she was definitely trying to draw Andre’s attention as he talked with her man. She leaned close, fiddled with her hair and showed cleavage. There weren’t that many women in the room showing cleavage. It wasn’t that kind of a bar. She had gone from looking seriously bored to animated the moment Andre approached their table.

She knew Andre was aware of the way the woman flirted, but he didn’t pay attention. He spoke only to the man, looking friendly, acting like they were good friends. Again he bought drinks for the table and wandered away. The dark-haired woman looked miffed, and Teagan took a sip of water to hide her smile.

Andre’s head turned and he looked right at her and smiled that slow, sexy smile that sent fire racing through her veins. She
loved
her man. He made her feel like the only woman in the room.

Are you all right?
 

Absolutely. Do your thing.
 

She loved that she could talk to him telepathically. She could get used to some of the perks of being Carpathian. It was really, really nice that he took the time to check on her. She sent him a smile and gave a little wave of her fingers indicating he should get on with whatever he was doing.

Planting information in their heads. The missing women, how they were all last seen with Jashari and his boys. Possible locations of bodies. They will not be able to stop thinking about it and they will find those bodies.
 

Her heart stuttered and she pulled out of his mind abruptly. She drew in her breath and looked down at the table, pretending interest in the pattern of the wood. Andre knew where the bodies were, she was absolutely certain of it. She caught that information in his mind. He was giving that to those men. How could he know where the bodies were? How? She didn’t know. Only Armend and his friends knew.

Oh God. What had she been thinking? How could he possibly know that? There was no way, not if he found Armend dead. He would have to know him. Know his friends. Dread filled her. Fear. She wanted to jump up and run out of the bar, but she didn’t know where she would go or who she would trust. She could make her way to the ladies room and hope there was cell phone service. She could call her grandmother again and alert her to the fact that she was in danger. She hadn’t told Grandma Trixie that Armend had sick friends.

Teagan. What is it?
 

Andre’s voice slipped inside, right under her skin. Usually that silk and velvet, rough and sensual and so beautiful voice could calm her churning stomach and keep fear at bay, but the knots tightened and a sense of dread filled her.

How could you know where the bodies are?
Stupid. She’d tipped him off that she knew. Her fingers clenched the edge of the table until her knuckles turned white.
You knew him. How else could you know?

I did not know him. He was alive when I got to him. We can discuss this when we are alone. I have one more person to talk to.
 

You lied to me. You said wolves killed him.
 

Wolves did kill him.
 

So go talk to your man so we can get out of here.
 

Are you good?
 

Yes.
And that was a lie. She wanted to go home. To the comfort of her grandmother and sisters. The familiar. She didn’t want to be Carpathian, flying through the sky in the form of an owl, no matter how cool it was. She just wanted to feel safe again, and she didn’t feel that way.

She didn’t know what to think. She bit down on her lip, trying to figure out why she felt so scared inside. She had deliberately touched Andre’s mind again while he talked to her and he believed what he was saying. He sounded honest. He felt honest. He was always gentle and sweet with her – but – he had taken away her choices. Still, he could have killed her anytime he wanted. She really didn’t believe he was a straight up killer. Maybe he’d had to defend himself against Armend. Maybe he’d really stumbled on the aftermath of the attack by wolves and tried to help him. She’d just panicked as usual. Still. That horrible feeling in her stomach persisted.

She sensed movement and glanced up, steeling herself, expecting Andre. Her beautiful Andre who had lied to her. Instead there were two men she’d never seen before. One carried two drinks, the other one held his own. They must have slipped into the bar while she was dancing with Andre, because she’d really looked around when they first entered and would have noticed both men. Really good-looking.

She hadn’t spotted either of them before. She could tell by their clothes and the flashy watch one of them wore that they either weren’t from around there, or they were one of the few families with money. She knew instantly why she’d jumped to such stupid conclusions about Andre. She’d been feeling
them
. These two men. The dark dread in her stomach and moving through her body was all about them.

“A beautiful woman shouldn’t be sitting alone,” the one with two drinks announced with a smile. “I’m Giles, Giles Barabash. This is my brother Gerard.” He set the drinks on the table, one in front of her, and both men pulled out chairs and sat down.

“I’m here with someone,” Teagan blurted out, using English just as he had. She could tell by his heavy accent that English wasn’t his first language, but he clearly could speak it easily.

Giles exchanged a glance with his brother. The look that passed between them made her uneasy. Giles shrugged. “He’s not here at this moment. His loss.”

“Seriously, he isn’t going to be happy with you sitting here.”

Giles pushed the drink toward her with two fingers, still smiling. His eyes were hard. “Drink it.”

She smelled the drug with her heightened senses. “No, thank you.”

Giles leaned close to her. “I wasn’t asking,
Teagan
.”

Two more men slid in on either side of her, trapping her between them. Her stomach did a steep pitch. She didn’t doubt for one moment these men were Armend’s friends. They knew who she was.

She refused to be intimidated. They were in a packed bar, and after all, Andre was there. She just needed to reach out to him. She didn’t. Instead she looked from one newcomer to the other. “And you are? You look like brothers as well.”

Giles snarled, lifting his lip and actually making a snarling sound, drawing her attention back to him. “Cousins,” Giles snapped. “Keith and Kirt.”

“So you’re all related. Wow. You believe in keeping it in the family.”

“Drink your fucking drink,” Giles commanded.

Without warning, the bar went quiet. The air actually vibrated with a heavy sense of danger impossible not to feel. She sucked in her breath and lifted her chin so she could look over Giles’s head. Her gaze collided with Andre’s. Cold fingers crept down her spine. He was angry. Seriously angry. The walls of the bar couldn’t possibly contain the wealth of anger pouring from him. His eyes were glacier blue and burned like a blue flame. She touched her tongue to her lips, unable to look away from him.

Andre looked like an ancient warrior out of a movie. His face was beautiful, carved of stone, totally masculine. His long hair flowed down his back. Her heart did some kind of melty thing and her stomach did a somersault. Hers. That man was hers. He certainly wasn’t friends with Giles, his brother or cousins. And he really,
really
didn’t like them sitting at her table.

“Teagan.” Andre held out his hand to her. His eyes, total blue flames, totally hot, burned over Giles.

Teagan rose instantly, pushing back her chair and moving around Keith to take Andre’s hand. He pulled her into his side. Close. Under the protection of his shoulder, and it was a broad shoulder. She slid her arm around his waist.

Andre didn’t say a word to the four men, he simply turned and made his way through the silent crowd toward the door. A woman pushed close, touched Teagan’s hand.

“Be careful of them,” she whispered. “They won’t let this go.” Her fingers slipped away and she melted into the crowd, clearly afraid of Giles and the others.

She delivered the warning in her native language, but Teagan caught the gist of it. She knew by the way Andre nodded at her. The nod was barely perceptible, but she saw the way the woman’s face glowed, just for a moment.

That’s nice,
she whispered into his mind.
She caught that, and you’re so gorgeous she can totally keep that going for months.

Do not be adorable right now. Or funny. I am seriously angry with you.
 

Gulp. She had been trying hard to pretend he hadn’t directed that anger at her, but there it was. No getting around it.

She lifted her chin and snuck a glance at his set jaw as they emerged into the night. The mist was once again thick, but this time, more of a dense, gray vapor that set her heart pounding – not as much as Andre’s dark, angry features, but still, who knew what that fog held?

It isn’t as if I invited those men to sit down with me,
she told him in a snippy little voice.
Sheesh. That totally was not my fault. At all. And, just because, for only one teensy second, I entertained the idea that you might be a
…
Yikes. Calling him a wacked-out killer wasn’t going to get her out of trouble.
In my defense, you do know where the dead bodies are and I had no idea Armend was alive when you found him.

Armend put bruises on you. He tried to rape you. He punched you. Did you think he would share the same air with you after that?
 

Oh. My. God.
Her heart stopped and then began pounding. Hard. Hurting hard.
Andre, what are saying? You told me wolves killed him.

His arm wrapped her up, locking her tightly against him. Behind them the door to the bar opened and then closed. She knew, without looking, that Giles and his crew were following them. They had convinced themselves it was four to one, clearly not counting her as a threat.

I told you the truth. I did not say I had not spoken with him. His mind was rotten and he enjoyed what he had done to those women, thinking of it often. He kept mementos in his home, the third drawer down in his private, locked desk. He takes them out at night and jerks off with the women’s underwear surrounding him.
 

She stumbled. Armend had touched her. Sat with her for three years while she tutored him. They’d laughed together. She’d counted him as a friend. Bile rose and she pushed the back of her hand against her mouth. Her vision actually narrowed, threatened to turn black. She felt dizzy and weak. She stumbled again.

Andre swept her up into his arms.
I apologize, sivamet. I should not have shared that with you. Breathe. Take a deep breath.

He didn’t increase his speed. In fact, he went from walking in silence, to making noise, allowing the soles of his boots to hit the surface much harder than normal. Teagan took in great gulps of air, her hands clutching at his shoulders. He was luring them to him. Giles and the others. Andre deliberately was baiting them. Tempting them to come after him.

Don’t, Andre. There’s four of them. You might kill vampires, but you can’t take on four killers. And you know they kill. Not all four at once.
 

They pry on helpless women. They beat up drunks. I am Carpathian. You are Carpathian. You have more strength in your little finger than all of them put together.
 

She blinked rapidly, trying to process that.
I do?
Wow. Now that was definitely on the pro side of the list for becoming Carpathian. She could be a real badass and kick butt if she had to. She liked that idea a lot.

Of course.
 

Still. Why are you getting them to follow you? Why don’t we just leave?
 

I do not leave behind men who rape and murder women. They will follow us into the lower hills. I can dispatch them there.
 

Dispatch? She licked her lips.
I’m just guessing here, but I don’t think you’re using that word to mean a message, or post or something of that nature.

As in mete out justice to them.
 

Um. Andre. You can’t do that. It’s against the law.