Femme Fatale (6 page)

Just before sunset, Mick returned to Savannah’s place. Mick pounded on the door again and again. When it didn’t unlock, he glared at the security camera positioned near the front door. “Let me
in,
Savannah.” He hadn’t come straight back to her place. Mick hadn’t been sure that Kale wasn’t hanging around, waiting to follow him, so he’d made a few pit-stops.

He’d broken into the apartment of Ben Travers and searched the place. Then he’d paid a similar visit to Steve Douglas’s place. After his recon work at their homes had been finished, he’d checked in at the police station
and
with the ME. Mick now knew that the victims had been drugged, all right, given enough sedatives to knock out a horse.

He pounded again. “Savannah!”

There was a faint click, and then the door opened. Damn. About time. He secured the door behind him, then hurried up the steps that would take him to the main area of her home. With every step, Mick was conscious of the gun that rested in the holster, tucked just beneath his arm. The wooden bullets were still in that gun.

He stepped away from the stairs—

“I was wondering if I would see you again.”

Mick froze.

Savannah’s back was turned to him. She’d cracked the shutters, just a bit, and she stared out at the city below. She wore a figure-hugging black dress. High heels. Her blonde hair gleamed under the lights.

“I searched for you, when I realized you were gone. But I couldn’t find you. There was no sign of any struggle, so I knew you’d left willingly, even though you said that you’d stay…” Savannah glanced over at him. With shock, he realized there were tear tracks on her cheeks. “I just wanted to see you again. I wanted you to be alive. But the minutes kept passing. You wouldn’t answer your phone. You weren’t at home. You weren’t at your office…
I couldn’t find you.”

Mick exhaled slowly. “I met Kale.”

Savannah flinched. “I figured as much, but what I don’t understand…is why did he let you live?”

He took a step toward her. Savannah inched back. Odd. She’d never retreated from him before. Mick lifted his hand. One of his pit-stops had been a side trip to the ER. His broken wrist had been reset and the blue cast was a bright contrast to his skin.

“What happened?” Savannah surged toward him. “What did he do to you?”

“Easy.” Her gaze seemed worried. And her fingers were touching him with such delicate care. “He let me go. The guy said he just wanted to talk to me. That he
wasn’t
the killer.” Unfortunately, her reaction—and her words—were confirming one truth for him. She
did
know Kale. She knew him, and she knew he was in the city. There’d been no shock from her at the mention of his name.

“So he said he wasn’t the bad guy and—what? You believed him?” She gave a frantic shake of her head. “You can’t believe him! He’s a liar, Mick. A cold-blooded monster. He will do anything to get what he wants.” She whirled away from him and rushed back to the shutters and her small view of the city. “He must have followed you. It had to be a trick. He wanted you to think that you were getting away but—”

“If you bite me a third time, will I become a vampire?”

Her shoulders stiffened.

See if you can tell when she’s lying…

“Will I, Savannah?” Mick pushed.

She squared her shoulders and turned to face him. “Yes.”

Fuck me.
“Didn’t you think that was important? That I know that fact?”

Her hand raked through her hair. “I wasn’t planning to bite you again. I didn’t intend the first bite—it was just an emergency and you
offered.
The second time…” Her hand fell. “Heat of the moment,” she mumbled.

Yes, it had been. But she still should have told him that shit. “If I become a vampire, what happens?”

Savannah swallowed. Her smile was hesitant. “You live forever. You stay young. Any injuries you have are healed and—”

“Will you control me?”

At his question, her words tumbled to a halt.

“If you give me that third bite, and I change into a vampire, will you have control of my mind? Will you be able to tell me exactly what to do, and I’ll have no free will?”

She glanced away from him. “Do you think I would do that to you?”

“I don’t know, just how badly do you want a—wait, what did you call it before? A
companion.
” Anger burned through him because he’d been falling for her. Fast, blindly, stupidly. And she’d been holding back on him all along. Damn her.

Damn him.

Damn them both.

“That’s the way it works, if a born changes a mortal,” she said, still not looking at him. “But, despite what you so obviously believe, I wouldn’t do that to you. I’d free you from my control the instant you were a vampire.”

His laugh was bitter. “I’m supposed to believe that? When you’ve been keeping all of these secrets from me?” And he couldn’t stand it. He needed her to look at him. Mick stalked toward her. He caught her chin in his left hand and turned her head toward him. Even then, the move was oddly tender. Why?
Because I am under her fucking spell.

“I figured learning about vampires was enough for the first day,” Savannah said slowly as her dark gaze locked on him. “I was going to bring the other stuff up in a less-freak-you-out manner.”

“I’m pretty damn freaked out.”

“I can see that.”

Silence.

Then Savannah licked her lower lip. The move looked nervous, so did her stare. “What else did Kale tell you?”

“That you were lovers.” Actually, he hadn’t said that, but Mick was guessing.

Her eyelids flickered. “That was a lifetime ago. Several, if you want to get all technical.”

“You could have mentioned that the asshole looks like me.”
You could have mentioned that he—specifically—was the vamp we were after.

Her brows shot up. “What are you talking about? Kale looks
nothing
like you. His eyes are beady and cold and yours are deep and soulful. His chin is weak. Yours is square and sexy. His nose makes him look way too arrogant, but you—you look like a fighter. Strong and hard and—” Savannah cleared her throat. “So he has dark hair and his build is vaguely similar to you. Big deal. Your shoulders are way wider, and you’ve got a much better ass.”

His cheeks were burning. He’d come in there, pissed as all hell at her, and now—now they were seriously off topic. “Kale said you’d killed those two men.”

“No, no, I didn’t! It was him!
He’s
the vampire that we’re after, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you all about him before, but it’s really not easy to just say, ‘Hey, you know the psycho killing in the city? He’s my ex.’” She blew out a hard breath. “And I could have been wrong. I hadn’t
seen
him.”

Mick had seen the bastard, and he wouldn’t be forgetting that little visit anytime soon. “How did you know I could become a vampire?”

She looked over his shoulder. That wouldn’t do. “My eyes, Savannah,” Mick snapped. “Look at me. Look me in my eyes, and tell me the truth.”

Her gaze came back to him. “When you injured in the shoot-out, I was at the hospital. I caught the scent of your blood in the air.” Her laughter was mocking. “But do you have any idea how many injured patients were there that night? Tracking you down was nearly impossible.”

His guts twisted. “Ben and Steve were also at the hospital that night.” A guess.

“Yes.”

“You tested them. You bit them, to see if they could be changed.”

“They weren’t you.” Her confession was soft.

“Did that mean they were expendable? You tested them, you found them lacking, so you just drained their bodies and tossed them aside?”

She’d gone so still before him. “Is that what you think I would do?”

No. Yes. Shit! “I think there’s a lot I don’t know about you. I think you could kill, Savannah. I think anyone could kill under the right circumstances.” He had, when a stand-off had gone to shit and he’d found himself full of bullets. He’d had to fire back because the killer had been closing in on his partner. There had been no choice. But his partner had still died—he just hadn’t been able to get help fast enough. He’d bled out right next to Mick.

Shut down that memory. Focus on the madness happening now.

“I should have killed Kale when I had the chance,” she whispered.

His eyes narrowed on her. This was a story he would be hearing.

“I told you that my parents were burned. Want to know who led the charge against them?
Kale’s parents.
So maybe I got a little revenge crazy when I came of age. Or rather, when I stopped aging. Because I was suddenly dealing with a world I wasn’t prepared for. And it would have been so much easier, if they’d been there.” She swiped her hand over her cheek. “They could have guided me. Helped me. But Kale’s parents took them away from me, so I thought…maybe I’d take something away from them.”

Okay, so perhaps he didn’t want to hear this story. His fingers slid away from her chin.

“I’m not perfect. I’m not some innocent princess,” Savannah said. “I never pretended to be. I’m a vamp and I let you know that from the beginning.” Her chin notched up. “I told him what I was, too. But he wasn’t scared. Kale liked it. He seemed to like me, and suddenly, my plans for revenge—for hurting Kale in order to get at them—they were stupid. No,
wrong.
Using Kale was wrong. Then I bit him, and I realized just what he could become.” Her breath heaved out. “He wanted me to change him. He promised me forever and swore that he loved me.”

Mick really hated this damn story. “What happened?”

“I changed him.” Her breath heaved out. “And the next night, Kale murdered his parents.”

Mick swore.

“I-I thought that maybe he was reacting to
me.
To the hate that I’d had for them. That hate had been part of me for years. I never said
anything
to him about killing them. But I was afraid I’d still been responsible, and the guilt ate at me.” She swallowed, the small click almost painful to hear. “So I immediately freed him. My parents had left an old journal—in it, they’d told me how to free a turned vampire. It’s just words and a blood exchange. To break the control link, I need to give my blood, freely, to the newly turned vamp. With Kale, I did it without hesitating. I made him
free.
”

Mick waited.

“And the next night, he killed his sister and his brother.”

Fuck.

“The night after that, he murdered two women in town. He was a killer, plain and simple. Operating under no one’s control but his own. He told me that he…
liked
killing. He liked having that power and tasting the rush that came from a victim’s death.” Her voice had gone ragged. “Too late, I realized exactly what I’d done. I’d created a real monster, and I had to stop him.”

This shit was heavy. And dark. And so beyond the reality that he was used to experiencing. “He didn’t look particularly
stopped
to me.”

“No.” She wrapped her arms around her stomach. “I tried, though. I nearly took his head. I
did
manage to trap him in a burning barn. The flames raged around him, and I stayed there all night, making sure he didn’t come out.”

So Savannah played rough.

“Don’t look at me that way,” Savannah suddenly blasted. “I was trying to protect the town from him. He was on a killing rampage. When he didn’t come out of that barn, I thought he was dead. Fire can kill a vampire, fire and a good beheading always work. It was a century later before I caught sight of him again. And since then, he’s been running and dodging me. This is the first time…the first time that
he’s
come after me.”

“You and Kale sure tell different stories.”

“My story is true. His is twisted to serve his own ends. I don’t know why he’s gunning for me now. Unless—” Her eyes widened. “It’s you. He must have gotten word of you…he knows what you can be, and
he
wants to be the one to change you. That way, he could control you. It would be two vampires against one. He thinks he can kill me, through you.”

Mick shook his head. “And how would he know just what I am?”

“Maybe he had someone following me. I told you before, vamps often get humans to help them, especially during the day. I told you that,” she muttered as she gave a hard shake of her head. “But you still went running out of here after my warning, and I had to search for you, all day long, convinced I was going to find your dead body!”

She actually sounded upset. And the tears on her cheeks had been real.

“That’s the problem,” Mick said as he locked his jaw. Then he gritted out, “I look at you, and I don’t think right. I look at you, and I want you. I want to fuck you and I want to protect you, and as crazy as it is, I think I even want to kill for you.”

Savannah shook her head. “No, that’s not what I want, not for you.” And in a blink, she was holding tightly to his arms as she stared up at him. “When Ben and Steve wound up dead, all I wanted to do was find you and protect you. I never wanted you to kill—I never wanted you hurt. There’s something about you…” Her lips curled in a sad smile. “I think you remind me of what it was like when I was human. Before I lost—well, before everything changed on me. When I still thought I could have a life that was normal, with a man by my side who loved me.”

Mick didn’t pull away from her. “What is it that you want from me?”

“Right now, I want to be with you again. Once more. I want to make love to you one more time, because this night isn’t going to end well. I know that with utter certainty.”

“I didn’t let the joker follow me—”

“He’s a vampire, Mick. He would have moved so fast that you wouldn’t have even noticed him. He knows where my home is now. And he’s planning his attack.” She spoke with chilling certainty.

“Then we should get the hell out of here.” Obviously.

“We’re safe inside. He won’t get in here, but if we go out there now…if we go into the open, he’ll have the advantage.” She shook her head. “We have just a little time together, and I want to spend these last moments with you. You said you wanted me.” Her hair trailed over her shoulder as she tilted her head back. “I want you. More than I’ve ever wanted anyone. Take me, Mick. Here, now. And let me take you. When the smoke clears…we’ll figure out everything else.”