Femme Fatale (7 page)

He shouldn’t. If there was a killer vamp stalking just outside the door, what they needed was a plan of attack. And maybe he couldn’t even trust her. Maybe this was just some trick so that she would be able to bite him again.
Third time will be the charm.

“Unless you don’t trust me,” Savannah said as her hands fell away from him. “Unless you let Kale’s words come between us.” She turned her back on him. “If that’s the case, then I understand. Well, no, actually, I really don’t. But whatever. Just stay here until dawn. I’ll deal with Kale and—”

He grabbed her. Locked his hand around her shoulder and spun her back to face him. Mick’s mouth crashed down on hers. He kissed her hard, deep, and with all the fierce lust he had burning inside of him.

And she kissed him back the same way. Her lips were soft and lush beneath his. Her tongue stroked against his. Her nipples pressed against his chest, right through the material of their clothes, and he wanted
in
her. She mattered. They mattered. The world was chaos, but he needed her.

Mick wasn’t ready to let her go. But he did have a rule. “No biting,” he ordered, his voice a rumble. “Don’t even think about it.”

Instead of pulling away, she laughed. God but he loved that sound. Then she was ripping at his clothes and he was yanking the skirt of her dress up higher. He should be using some kind of finesse. She’d asked him to
make love
to her, not attack her like a starving man. But there was a desperation riding him that he couldn’t ignore. Mick felt as if a clock were running out on them, quickly ticking away the seconds. He had to have her. Needed so desperately to connect with her again on a basic, primitive level.

What’s real? What’s a lie?

He pressed her shoulders to the wall. Lifted her up. Her long legs wrapped around his hips and he shredded her panties as he tried to yank them out of the way.

What’s real?

He positioned his cock at the entrance of her body. He held her easily and he drove deep, thrusting hard and heavily into her. Her moan was freaking music to his ears. He stared down at her and saw the flash of her teeth.

What’s a lie?

But she pressed her lips together and turned her face away from him. He plunged into her, over and over.

He was the one to kiss her throat. The one to lightly nip her with his teeth. Because maybe…maybe he wanted to mark her, too. She gasped beneath his light bite, and he felt the spasm of her release as her sex squeezed tightly around him.

Mick was right with her. His orgasm hit him with shuddering force, slamming through his entire body as the pleasure lashed and lashed against him.

His heaving breaths seemed too loud in the silence that followed. His heartbeat was a drum that wouldn’t slow. Savannah’s head turned toward him. She gave him a faint smile. “Guess I’m not the only one who likes to bite.”

“I—” Shit. Okay. He needed to explain this. “Savannah—”

But in the next instant, her eyes went wide. Her nostrils flared and he saw the alarm on her face. “Smoke,” Savannah said.

“What?”

She shoved against him. In a flash, she was free of him and across the room. And he was still standing there, wishing she was right back on top of him again.
Dammit.

“The bastard started a fire!” Savannah said, her voice sharp. “I can smell the smoke. He knew he couldn’t get past my security—so he’s trying to burn me.” She gave a hard shake of her head. “The same way I tried to burn him.”

Mick yanked up his jeans and grabbed for the shirt he’d tossed aside. Or maybe Savannah had tossed it. He didn’t remember. He dressed as fast as he could and ran for the door.

But Savannah grabbed his arm. “He’ll be waiting for us outside. He knows we can’t stay in here. It’s a trick. A trap. Damn him.”

Mick took the gun out of his holster. “Wooden bullets, baby. He isn’t the only one ready for a fight.”

But instead of looking reassured, uncertainty flashed in her eyes. “You…you had those the whole time?” She backed up a step. “You…came here with them?”

Oh, hell. “Savannah, no, it’s not like that. I never intended to use them on you!”

“Are you sure of that?”

“I—” An explosion rocked the building. One, then another. Savannah screamed and grabbed for Mick. The whole warehouse was shaking, and he realized that Kale must have rigged bombs around the place.

While I was distracted by her.

The place was literally burning around them. They couldn’t stay there. They had to get out or they’d die, but when they ran to the stairs, Mick saw that they were already engulfed in flames. Smoke filled the air, heavy and dark, and he choked, trying to breathe as he realized that escape wasn’t coming that way.

He glanced around, fast and frantic.

“Fire escape,” Savannah said. “To the right. The window there—”

He yanked open the interior shutters and shoved that window wide open. Sure enough, there was a fire escape leading down. He headed out onto the narrow ledge and pulled Savannah after him. The heat from the blaze seemed to race across his skin.

“Go!” Savannah said. “Go!” He rushed ahead, wanting to reach the ground first so that he could provide cover for her. He knew Kale was waiting, and Mick wanted to protect Savannah. His feet touched down moments later. He backed away from the fire escape ladder, looked up for her—

But Savannah wasn’t on the fire escape. She wasn’t on the ledge. And the fire was bursting from the windows of her home.

“No!”
Mick roared.

And then something—no,
someone—
slammed into him.

Mick rolled across the ground. He’d been tackled by one damn powerful SOB, but Mick wasn’t about to stay down. He leapt to his feet, the gun clutched in his left hand.

Kale smiled at him. “Thanks for leading me right to Savannah. It was nice to watch
her
burn for a change.”

No, no, Savannah wasn’t burning. She’d been right behind him. The whole time. She—

“You left her up there, huh?” Kale taunted. “A save-yourself man, are you? Can’t say I blame you. Savannah is really more trouble than she’s worth—”

Mick fired at him. Once, twice. He aimed straight for the vamp’s chest, and those bullets tore into Kale. The guy jerked under the impact and he staggered back, seemingly stunned that Mick had actually attacked him. Dumb SOB. What had he thought would happen? They’d stand there
talking
while that fire raged?

“She’s worth plenty to me,” Mick snarled. Then he whirled toward the fire. “
Savannah!”

“It’s all right, Mick, I’m here,” she said. Her voice came from close by—very close. His head shot to the right and he found her standing over Kale’s prone body.
Vamp speed.
He’d never even seen her run toward he guy. She shook her head as she stared down at him. “You got his heart. I can’t believe it. I rushed over to save you…” Her head lifted. “But you saved me instead.”

Well, hell, yes, he had. He’d save her any day of the week.

“I thought there would be more,” Savannah said. “After all of this, he’s just…gone…”

Bam!

That gunfire—it hadn’t come from Mick’s gun. But Savannah was staring at him with wide, desperate eyes and red was blooming on her chest. “
Mick?”

Bam! Bam!

Her body jerked like a marionette.

“No!” Mick yelled but Savannah was already falling, slamming toward the ground and hitting just inches from Kale’s sprawled form. Only Mick hadn’t fired at her. He hadn’t shot those bullets.

The shooter had been behind Savannah. The bullets had gone straight through her body.

I didn’t shoot, baby. I swear, it wasn’t me.
But he’d been holding his gun up and in that last instant before she fell, he’d seen the pain and betrayal in her eyes. Savannah had thought he’d been the one trying to kill her.

Laughter reached Mick as he grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. “No, baby, no! Stay with me.
Stay!”
This couldn’t be happening. He’d—fuck it, he’d just found her. Savannah couldn’t die on him now.

“N-not wood,” she whispered. “Can…tell…”

His breath heaved out. If it wasn’t a wooden bullet, that meant she’d live. Right?
But she told me before how bad blood loss could be for a vamp.
Savannah was bleeding, far too much.

“Mick, g-go—”

He couldn’t go.
They
couldn’t go. Because the bastard who’d fired had closed in on him. Mick had been so fucking blindsided by her injuries that he hadn’t been paying attention to anything else. He felt a sharp jab in his neck. Mick kept one arm around Savannah even as he fumbled to pull up his gun.

Will stood there. Smiling at him. Will lifted his hands and a syringe fell to the ground. “You wouldn’t shoot an unarmed man, would you?” Will asked him. “That’s not something a good cop does.”

“N-not…cop…” He tried to aim that gun at Will.

But his whole body had turned sluggish. That bastard Will had drugged him—a sharp injection in the back of the neck.
Just like the other victims.
And suddenly, in that last instant, it all made sense.

Will…
He’d been at Intoxication. He’d had access to both Ben and Steve. While the guy had been behind the bar, he’d been watching and taking note of everything and everyone. He’d realized that Savannah was a vampire.

And did you want to be one, too?

“Thanks for killing Kale for me. That prick had it coming. That’s what you get for attacking
me,
” Will muttered.

Mick’s body slumped forward. He couldn’t make his fingers work. Couldn’t keep his eyes open.

“We need to get out of here, though. Before someone reports all that damn smoke. Kale was such an idiot—you got to do things way more low key.”

“
Mick…”
Savannah’s voice was a bare breath of sound. “Are you…still with me?”

“Don’t fight it, man,” Will said at the same time. “No sense in it. You’re out from the drugs, my own special mix of sedatives. She’s weak from blood loss.
You’re both mine.
When you wake up, the real fun will begin.”

Fun…what fun? Would he be drained of blood, just like Ben and Steve? And what about Savannah? What would happen to her?

Have to stop him.

But he was losing consciousness. Too fast. With his last bit of strength, Mick gasped out, “Bite…me…”

Will laughed. “A fighter to the end, huh, asshole? Let’s see just how much you fight when I get my tubes hooked into your throat and I drain every single bit of blood from your body.”

Mick slumped forward, falling onto Savannah. And Savannah…

He felt the press of her teeth against him.

Hell, yes, baby. Hell, yes.

***

Will had transported them in the back of a van. Some big, black van that the guy had hidden close to Savannah’s house. Will had tied Savannah up, securing her hands behind her back and even tying her ankles together. Normally, ropes wouldn’t hold her for long, but her wounds had been pretty bad.

And she’d only had time for the barest of drinks from Mick.

Mick.

He was beside her in the van. Not tied up, but completely out. Will probably thought that Mick wasn’t a threat. He was wrong. So very wrong.

And I hope I didn’t misunderstand Mick. Because there is no going back from what I did.

But while they’d been in the back of that van, she’d tried to make things up to him. She’d crawled her way—rather worm-like—toward him. She’d put her bound wrists to his mouth. She’d cut her wrists on the rope, heaving and sawing desperately as she tried to get free.

Her wrists had been bleeding, and she’d given Mick that blood.

And I gave you freedom, too. You’ll never be under anyone’s control.

Provided, of course, that they managed to live through the night.

The van came to a jarring stop. She rolled hard and slammed into the side of the vehicle. A few moments later, the back door was heaved open. Will grabbed Savannah by her bound ankles and yanked her right out of the van. She slammed into the ground with an impact that took her breath away.

“You’re going to change me, tonight,” Will said as he stood over her, his hands on his hips. “You’re going to make me into a vampire. I’m not going to be some lame-ass whiskey dick working a bar for the rest of my life—I’m going to be a freaking immortal beast!”

She rolled on the ground, moving her body so that she could gaze up at him. “That’s not how it works. Not every human can change—”

“I
know
how it works!” Will snapped. He grabbed her shoulders and heaved her up. “I’m ready! I’ve been drinking blood—
just like you!
”

He’d been—what?

Will heaved her over his shoulder and carried her into a little house, a house at the end of what appeared to be a dead-end road. There were a few other houses nearby but Savannah didn’t call out for help. The last thing she wanted to do was risk more humans.
I can stop him.

But those houses were all dark, so she wasn’t even sure humans were there. She suspected Will had picked this location so he could have total privacy.
So no one will see his madness.

The porch steps creaked beneath Will’s feet. He unlocked the door, and took her inside.

Oh, shit. I hope I can stop him.

Because the interior of the place looked like some kind of sick torture zone. There were surgical instruments everywhere. And some weird apparatus attached to tubes—blood-stained tubes. The tubes led to a metal chair that had been bolted into the floor.

He dropped her into the chair. Will picked up the tubes, and she saw the sharp points on their ends. “I use these,” he told her, “to drain my prey.”

“You’re insane.”

His face jerked close to hers. “I’m just like you! We both need blood to survive!”

Savannah shook her head. “You aren’t a vampire.”

“I will be.” He gave a grim nod. “I should be. Always,
always
knew I was different. The first time I took a life, I knew.”

The first time…
“How old were you?” Savannah whispered. She needed to keep him busy, focused just on her. She needed to buy Mick as long as possible to complete the transformation.

“Sixteen,” Will told her proudly. “And I liked the blood so much, even then. I should have realized what I was meant to be. But I didn’t know…not until Kale came to me. Not until he told me all about vampires and started paying me to watch
you.
”

Great. Of course, Kale was involved deeply in this mess.

“He promised to turn me, but I got tired of waiting. So I started taking blood from the men you’d been with.” He laughed. “Thought there might be something special in their blood, but it wasn’t
their
blood that was special, was it? It was the PI’s.”

He still had those tubes in his hand.

“Kale lied to you,” Savannah told him. “That was his thing. Lies. He was never going to change—”

“I
know
!” Will bellowed at her. “I realized it when he grabbed me from Intoxication last night. He made me call the PI. Acted like Swayne was some big deal, then I realized that Kale had just been playing me.” He laughed roughly. “If Swayne hadn’t killed him, I would’ve. No one ties up Will Mato. No one turns on me!”

Okay…

“He was going to kill you,” Will suddenly said. “Kale was obsessed with you, but he didn’t just want to fuck you. He wanted to make you bleed and beg and die. That was his plan for you.” Will leaned in even closer to her. His lips brushed over her ear as he said, “That’s my plan, too.”

She lifted her bound feet and slammed them into his stomach. Will fell back.

“Get a new plan,” Savannah advised him. “
Fast.”
She shot to her feet, bounced, and managed to stay upright even as Will lunged at her.

Bring it, you bastard—

“No one makes Savannah beg,” Mick’s voice rang out. A very alert, very strong, very
close
voice. “And I sure don’t like it when someone makes her bleed.”

Will’s head whipped toward him. “What? No, you should still be out!”

Mick smiled and flashed fangs. “As far as fucking her, that shit sure isn’t going to happen. And the only one dying…that will be you.”

While Will was distracted by Mick, Savannah slammed into him, hard. He staggered and toppled forward. Those tubes finally fell out of his hands.

Will landed on all fours. He glared up at Mick. “No! You can’t be a vampire!”

Mick’s teeth snapped together. “I sure as hell feel like one.”

And right then, Savannah’s ropes finally gave way. She heaved hard and the ropes around her wrists jerked apart. Savannah grabbed for the tubes—

Will yanked a gun from his waistband. “
I get to be the vampire! I’m meant to live forever!”

Before he could fire on Mick, Savannah slammed the sharp edges of the tubes into his neck. Will screamed and he tried to whirl and aim that gun at her.

But Mick caught Will’s hand and held tight as he pushed the weapon against Will’s own body.

When Will fired, that bullet blasted straight into his own chest.

“
Please, p-please…”
Will whispered. “I was meant…
I don’t want…
”

But it was too late.

Mick let him go. Will fell to the floor once more. Only this time, he was dying.

Savannah saw the exact moment when the light went out of his eyes. The only begging that night had been from him—he’d begged and he’d died.

Her body began to sway as she stared down at him. Her breath whispered out. Her lashes closed.

“Savannah?” Mick’s warm hand curled around her shoulder. “Baby, there’s so much blood….”

“I’ll be okay. Vamps heal, remember?” She didn’t want to look at him in that terrible moment. This nightmare was bad enough without having to look at him as she told him good-bye. “I said it before, but I don’t think you could hear me.”
Because you were out cold. “
I need you to know this—to understand…
You’re free, Mick.
Completely free. You can walk away from me now, and nothing will ever pull you back. I don’t control you. No one does. You can just…go.”

His hand left her shoulder. There was a faint rustle of sound. He was leaving. He was—

The ropes at her ankles fell away. Savannah’s eyes flew open, and she found Mick kneeling in front of her. A knife gleamed in his hand.

He rose, slowly, with his gaze on hers. “I know I’m free. I heard you in the van.”

“You—”

“I was just biding my time, waiting for a moment to attack that freak.”

A sign would have been helpful.

Mick brushed back her hair. His hand lingered on her cheek. “I don’t want to walk away, Savannah. I want to see where this can go—where
we
can go. Hell, maybe we’ll implode. Maybe we’ll be terrible for each other…” His lips curled into a half-smile. “Or maybe you’ll just be the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Her heart was racing—too fast. “You’re a vampire now.”

“I asked for that third bite. I knew exactly what I was doing.” Then he leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips. “I wasn’t going to let you die. It wasn’t a hard choice to make.”

Then he lifted her into his arms. Carried her out of that house. She wrapped her arms around him and didn’t look back at the man who’d torn apart so many lives.

The night waited for them outside and Mick—he felt so good. Strong. Solid. Right.

He hadn’t said he loved her. She hadn’t said she loved him. Twenty-four hours…such a short time.

Such a long time.

A time long enough to die.

A time long enough to live.

A time long enough to love?