Enraptured (39 page)

“It’s never easy to take a life,” he said
quietly.

He released her arm when Aiden and Brian
stepped into the doorway. Ethan jerked his head toward the bedroom
and the others followed behind him. Turning back to her father,
Paige ignored his open eyes as she grabbed hold of his arms.
Bending at her knees, she dragged his upper body over her shoulders
and hefted him onto her right shoulder. As a human she would have
fallen over, but she had no problem with his weight as she rose
back up.

“You don’t have to do that,” Brian told her
when he reappeared in the doorway with one of the other dead vamps.
“I can carry them both.”

Paige shook her head and adjusted her hold
on her father’s body. “No. This is my burden.”

She turned away to find Ian standing in the
doorway with two bodies thrown over his shoulders. She recognized
one of the bodies as the man who had first attacked them in the
elevator. Ian’s eyes burned into hers, a muscle in his jaw jumped,
she could sense his displeasure over her carrying her father but he
didn’t protest as she walked toward him.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“The roof.”

She looked past him to the room the man and
woman had been in when she’d first entered. “Where’s Ronan?”

“Working with David and Emma to change the
memories of the rest of the people. They’re also going to bide us
some time.”

Paige didn’t ask how they were going to do
that; she didn’t really want to know right now. She tried not to
think about who she was carrying while she followed him down the
hall toward the stairwell she’d used before. Emma stood in front of
it with the door open to the hall beyond.

She took an abrupt step back when she
spotted the numerous beds and couches thrown into the stairwell
leading to the floor below. The stairs were stacked from floor to
ceiling with furniture. She didn’t know how far down it all went,
but no one would be getting up that stairwell any time soon.

“Ronan, David, and Emma threw them down
there to slow the police,” Ian explained when he saw the
questioning look on her face. “The elevator doors won’t be opening
on this floor, and we’re going to block the other ways to get here
before the police arrive.”

She glanced up and down the hallway. “What
about all the blood?”

“There are some things we can’t take care
of. The people have been told it was a robbery gone wrong, and the
blood belongs to some of the burglars. None of them can remember
what those thieves looked like or how they were injured.”

She’d known for years what vampires were
capable of, but all of this was still overwhelming and astonishing.
Her head spun from everything that had happened as she followed Ian
up the next two flights of stairs. Her legs began to ache from the
strain of the body draped over her shoulder, but she refused to
relinquish her hold on him. She’d meant it when she’d said he was
her burden; she would carry him for as long as it took and as far
as she had to.

They’d climbed ten more floors and were
almost to the top of the hotel when crashes and bangs sounded from
behind her. The force of the crashes shook the stairwell and caused
the stairs to vibrate beneath her feet. Stopping, she turned to
look down the winding stairs to the floors below.

“It’s just Emma, David, and Ronan throwing
more furniture into the stairwell to block access from the floor
above where we were staying. Keep going,” Ian encouraged.

Finally making it to the top, Paige stopped
outside of the metal door leading to the roof. “Won’t we set off
the alarm?” she asked nervously.

In answer to her question she heard more
furniture being tossed into the stairwell below them, blocking it.
Ian slammed into the door, breaking the large, deadbolt lock. The
alarm above the door blared, red lights flashed when the door burst
open, but he moved swiftly out to the roof. Paige followed behind
him; they ran across the roof to the brick wall running around the
edge of it.

Standing at the wall, the wind kicked up
around her blowing her hair back and bringing with it the scents of
the bustling city beneath them. Immortal or not, the spectacle of
the alley so far below made her stomach turn as dizziness assailed
her. Heights had never been her thing; she’d never been one for
roller coasters or climbing trees, not even as a child.

Taking a step back, she lifted her head to
stare across the skyline of the city. Down below all of the lights
blocked out the stars, but up here they were shining orbs twinkling
in the velvet darkness. She looked over the tops of the buildings
surrounding her, none of which were close. Flashes of red and blue
from the police cruisers and fire trucks parked below reflected
over the windows of the hotels and casinos nearby causing them to
come alive with color. It would have been beautiful if she hadn’t
felt so trapped.

Jumping, she spun around when the door
crashed behind her. David and Ronan stepped away from the door to
the hotel. An armoire the size of a small minivan had been placed
before the door to block access to the roof. Ronan strode rapidly
over to join them. “We have to go,” he said briskly.

“Where?” Paige asked.

He pointed across the open expanse to the
roof beyond. Despite her intentions to remain composed, she felt
the blood drain from her face as she gazed across the nearly thirty
foot gap between the buildings. She was immortal. She could carry a
two hundred pound body up fifteen flights of stairs without
breaking a sweat, and with only a twinge in her lower back and
legs. But seriously, was he kidding?

“You’re going to have to give your father’s
body to Ronan,” Ian told her.

“What about you?” she demanded. “You can’t
make that leap with those bodies.”

“Yes, I can, and I’ll only be taking one
with me.” His tone was flat; his eyes burned into hers. His
strength and determination radiated through their bond. “Now give
Ronan the body.”

Ronan stepped forward and gestured for her
to hand her father over. This time Paige didn’t argue about giving
the body to the more powerful vampire. She wasn’t sure she could
make the leap without a body, never mind
with
one. “A
running start will make it easier,” Ian told her.

Ian handed one of the bodies he’d been
carrying over to David and took hold of her hand. He walked back
toward the door with her. Turning by the door, she stood and stared
across the roof. “I’m not so sure about this.”

“You can do this,” Ian insisted.

“I can do this,” she repeated.

And then, before she could think twice about
it, she raced across the roof and leapt over the wall with Ian at
her side. Air rushed up around her, tore at her clothes and whipped
her hair around her as empty space rushed up to meet her. Her legs
kicked in mid-air in some half-ass attempt to keep her in the air
longer. She prayed she would somehow make it to the other building,
but she kept picturing herself free falling when she was halfway
across the space.

It only took a second, but time slowed as
she breathlessly waited for her downward plunge to begin. Images of
her body bouncing off of the glass windows, breaking her bones, and
shattering the glass filled her mind.

And then she was falling, but she refused to
look down, refused to know if she was going to splat onto the
ground and break every bone in her body. She could picture the
police scurrying about her, trying to figure out how a human bug
splat could still be alive while she lay broken on the ground.

Instead of a freefall of forty-five floors,
her feet connected with solid ground. Her momentum carried her
forward a few staggering steps before she regained her balance
completely. Exhilaration filled her; she let out a whoop of joy as
she stared at the solid roof beneath her feet.

Ian dragged her up against him and kissed
her. “We have to keep going,” he whispered against her mouth when
he pulled away.

Her celebration of the fact she’d almost
flown was doused beneath the realization that they’d have to do it
again. Ian tugged on her hand, pulling her forward. She raced with
him across the rooftop and leapt across the next open space of only
twenty feet. This time instead of being even, they plummeted a good
fifteen feet down to the smaller building. They ran over three more
buildings before finally coming across one a good ten stories
higher than the roofs they’d been jumping. Unless they somehow
became Spider-Man, there was no way any of them were going to be
able to make that leap.

“There’s a set of fire stairs over here!”
Emma called from the other side of the building.

Paige hurried to join her; she looked over
the side of the building to the stairs below. “Aiden, Emma, you’re
the only ones not covered in blood. We need you to get us a truck,”
Ronan commanded.

“Emma stays,” Ethan growled.

“Ethan…” Emma started.

“No, Brian can go with Aiden. He’ll have to
stay in the shadows. You’re not leaving my side when there’s so
much going on down there, and possibly more vampires. Please, don’t
argue with me on this.”

The look on her face said Emma had been
gearing up for a fight, but his use of the word please knocked it
out of her. She bowed her head in acquiescence. Aiden and Brian
jumped onto the stairs; Paige watched as they rapidly made their
way down and faded into the shadows of the alleyway beyond. She
didn’t know where they were in the city, but judging by the dimmer
lights and less noise, they had moved away from the main hustle and
bustle of the strip.

Beside her, Ian dropped the body he’d been
carrying. He wrapped his arms around her. She ignored the blood
coating him as she buried herself in his embrace and waited for the
others to come back.

Ian drove the box truck Aiden and Brian had stolen
out to the middle of the desert. The sun shone brightly from its
perch high in the sky when he pulled to the side of the road. Ronan
and David already had the backdoor lifted up by the time he walked
around to the back. Wordlessly, he helped the others drag the
bodies from the truck and into the sunlight.

Smoke, rising from the dead bodies, drifted
in curling tendrils toward the sky. The body on his shoulder
heated; its skin sizzled and popped as the sun beat down upon flesh
that had been hidden from its rays for some time. The burning flesh
heated his skin, but he ignored the sensation as they continued
across the desert.

They carried the bodies off the road and hid
them behind an outcropping of rocks a mile away. Flesh curled and
slipped off of the dead man’s back when Ian dumped him onto the
sand. The man’s skin shriveled like a worm on the sidewalk in the
August sun. Paige released her father’s body beside the one Ian had
just discarded.

She folded her hands before her; her head
bowed as she stared at the remains. The wounds on her face and her
broken ribs had healed, but her skin was still paler than he liked,
and shadows lingered under her eyes. He wrapped his arm around her
shoulders and pulled her against his side.

“The sun and animals will take care of the
remains by tomorrow night,” Ronan said.

Paige’s hand rested on his stomach as he
turned and walked with her back to the truck. “What about our stuff
at the hotel? Are we going back to get it?” Emma inquired.

“It’s better we stay away from there,” Ronan
answered. “My man will make sure no evidence of us remains there
and will get us back anything we need. I’ve arranged a place for us
to stay tonight; my plane will take us out of here tomorrow.”

Paige didn’t ask why they weren’t leaving
today, the vampire had his own plane, she was sure there was a
reason they had to stay. She climbed into the passenger seat of the
truck beside Ian and rode in silence back toward the city. They
didn’t return to the main strip but followed Ronan’s instructions
to a large, stucco condo on the outskirts of the city.

Turning on the TV in the condo Ronan had
somehow secured, Paige flipped through the channels until she found
a news report. The first news story was about the robbery at the
hotel. Drawn by the voice of the female reporter, and the headline,
the others gathered around the TV. They listened as the reporter
told the story, but at the end there was little the police knew,
and no images had been captured on camera.

“That’s good,” Ian said.

“The authorities will run around in circles
like they normally do in cases they can’t quite explain,” Ronan
replied. “It will be buried and shoved aside by the end of next
week.”

“Does it matter which room we take?” Ian
inquired. He could feel Paige’s exhaustion in his mind, see it in
the slump of her shoulders.

“The room at the end is mine,” Ronan
replied. “It’s up to all of you after that. I’ll have some clothes
delivered today and placed outside your door for you.”

“Thank you,” Paige whispered. “for
everything.”

Ronan shrugged. “It’s my calling. Purebreds
have to be kept safe or destroyed.”

“And turned vampires?” Ethan inquired.

“The race must be protected at all times,”
Ronan replied. “No matter what the cost.”

Paige shuddered at his words, but all she
really wanted was to go to sleep right now. Sensing this, Ian
wrapped his hand around her elbow, said goodbye to everyone, and
led her down the hall toward the first room on the right. The room
was small, but the bed was one of the most inviting things she’d
ever seen.

“I need out of these clothes,” she
murmured.

Ian turned the shower on in the adjoining
bathroom before returning to help her strip out of her clothes.
Purple and black bruises marred her ivory complexion on her back
and arms, but they were fading fast. He pressed a kiss against a
bruise the color of a plum on the inside of her right wrist, before
leading her into the bathroom. Joining her in the shower, he
tenderly washed the blood from her skin and hair before scrubbing
it off of himself.