Fire and Ash (Immortal Touch) (31 page)

This was too much, even for him. “You know what, I think I’ve had enough for one night. It’s time to come clean. I’m just gonna call my parents to come pick me up…” He reached into the pocket of his windbreaker for his cell phone that he hoped was still intact, but to his shock she snatched it out of his hand and dropped it to the ground, crushing it into plastic splinters with her Nike. “What’d you do
that
for? I paid over a hundred bucks for…”

“Will you do one thing for me, Dane?” She gripped his shoulders and for one glorious
moment he thought that maybe she was about to kiss him. No such luck, though.

“Okay.”

“Touch the roof of your mouth.”

A cynical laugh escaped him. “What?”

Reaching for one of his hands, she lifted it and gently coaxed, “Put your fingers in your mouth and feel just behind your canines.”

So he did
, albeit reluctantly. And there
was
something there that hadn’t been before. Pressed up against the roof of his mouth, there were two of them - hard and slender, embedded in his flesh at one end and sharp as a needle at the other…

“Oh, shit.”
With his fingers in his mouth it came out sounding like
oh, thit.

“I’m sorry, Dane.
Believe me, there was no other way.”

He dropped
his hand to his side and stared at her numbly, unable to think of one single thing to say. Because this was not possible, vampires didn’t exist, that was all a bunch of Hollywood hype, and Eva, his sweet Eva, she couldn’t be some nightstalking succubus…not her. Not her, and not him. Nuh-uh. There was no way the shy and awkward Dane Chandler was now some mythical, monstrous creature.

But…

What if he
was?

Eva put a sympathetic arm around him. “Come on. We’ll get you inside and get you cleaned up - you can wear some of Julian’s clothes. Then we’ll figure out what to do with you.”

The mention of her fiancé’s name struck a chord in him. “Is Mr. Winter…is he…”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “He is.”
They had finally reached the house, and she opened the front door and ushered him inside.

He’d always
known
there was something off about that guy. But a vampire? Following Eva upstairs, he poked a finger in his mouth once again and touched the foreign teeth. There had to be some other explanation for this. In the mirror of the bedroom’s dresser, he saw his reflection. Cripes, he looked like something out of a late night horror movie. There was dried blood smeared on his face and matted all in his hair. But this proved his point, didn’t it? Vampires weren’t supposed to cast a reflection.

“I can see myself,” he
announced.

“Well, no kidding.” Eva rummaged through a drawer, looking for something for him to wear.

“Shouldn’t I be, like, invisible in the mirror or somethin’?”

“No. You’ll see your
reflection just fine, you’ll walk around in daylight, you’ll eat garlic on your pizza if you want to and you can forget any other stereotype you’ve ever heard.” She slammed the drawer shut and handed him a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. “There are towels in the bathroom. Make yourself at home.”

He stood looking at her uncertainly. “
Uh…”

Relenting, s
he reached forward to gently brush a dirty lock of hair away from his eyes. “Oh, Dane…sweetie…I don’t mean to seem insensitive. I’m sorry. This is just…it’s more than I know how to handle right now. I’m new at this myself.”

“You are?”

“Yes. I haven’t been this way for long.”

Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, he eyed her with trepidation. “Am I…am I gonna be okay?”

“Sure you will. You’ll be just fine.” She smiled reassuringly. “Why don’t you go hop in the shower now and get yourself cleaned up. Then we’ll talk. Okay?”

Well, i
f she said he was going to be fine, then he’d take her at her word. What other choice did he have? He nodded and walked slowly toward the bathroom. When he reached the door he paused, looking back at her shyly. “Thanks, Eva.”

“You have nothing to thank me for.”

“You saved my life.”

She
gazed back at him with troubled eyes. “I did the only thing I could think of, Dane. I just hope you don’t hate me for it later.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Where is he?”

Julian threw the insulin kit on the kitchen table and
Eva’s grip on the teakettle’s handle tightened nervously. Just as she’d feared, he was furious with her for what she’d done. And he had every right to be. But she couldn’t make herself regret her snap decision. Dane was alive, wasn’t he? For better or worse, he was still alive.

“He’s upstairs taking a shower.” She reached into the cabinet for a cup. “I didn’t expect you back so soon. Would you like some tea?”

He stared at her incredulously, his eyes black and stormy. “No, I don’t want to have a bloody tea party, Eva - I want some answers from you! I want to know what was going through your mind when you did something so completely stupid and reckless! Have you any idea what you’ve done? Did you not for one moment consider the repercussions of your actions?”

“No,” she said quietly.

“
Why?
Why would you do this? Explain that to me, Eva! I would really like to know what is so important about this boy that you would risk our future for him!”

She slammed the cabinet door and turned to face him. “Is that why you’re so angry? Because you view him as some sort of
romantic rival? Are you
serious
, Julian?”

“Then
why?
Just tell me that,
please!
Clue me in…because I cannot for the life of me fathom your reasoning behind this!”

“
Because he was dying!
Because a seventeen-year-old boy who never did a thing in his life to deserve what was happening to him was dying in front of me, before he ever even had a chance to
live!
Because he had hope and promise and a bright future and all that was being ripped from him for
no reason!
Because it
wasn’t fair!
It wasn’t fair, Jules…it just wasn’t…it wasn’t
fair
…” She collapsed into a kitchen chair, eyes brimming over with frustrated tears. Why did he demand her justification? It should be easy to understand why. Would he not have done the same for her?

He knelt before her, taking her hands gently in his. “Life isn’t always fair, butterfly.”
Raising her hands to his lips, he kissed them both lovingly. “You must learn to accept this. It isn’t up to us to rescue every injured stray that crosses our path. There are lasting consequences to these actions. Please don’t cry, love…I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

She blinked away the tears
and sniffed. “What did you tell the police?”

“Just that I
came across the wreckage on my way home from out of town. Since I wasn’t a witness to the accident, they didn’t ask too many questions.”

“What did you tell them about Dane?”

“Nothing. As far as they’re concerned, Imogen was alone.”

“Her poor father
…he’ll be devastated.” Eva shook her head dismally. “But didn’t you tell the dispatcher there were two passengers?”

“Yes, but with all the blood
and…well, with all the mess and the darkness it was easy enough to convince them I’d simply made a mistake.”

“Then all we have to do is make sure Dane gets home before anyone finds out he was gone.”
It could all still work out, if they were careful…

“I don’t know if that’s
the best idea,” Julian objected. “He needs to be where we can keep an eye on him. I don’t like the thought of letting him run loose. We don’t know how he’s going to behave. And he’ll need instruction. Guidance.”

“If he doesn’t go home,
aren’t his parents going to automatically assume he was with Imogen? And anyway, what’s he going to do - stay here? You two shouldn’t be around each other any more than necessary. I don’t want to see you get into some kind of turf war with him.” She bit her lip thoughtfully. “Look, we’ll take him back to his house before his parents get up. Just long enough so they see him. In the afternoon he can come back here for a while and we can try to work with him. How does that sound for now?”

Rubbing his jaw, Julian considered this for a moment
before giving in. “Very well. I suppose that is the most logical thing to do. There’s only one other thing that worries me.”

There was no need to
ask what that one thing was. She’d been troubled by the same thought. The alpha had made himself very clear on the matter of unauthorized conversions. “Maybe they won’t find out.”

“
They’ll find out. It didn’t take them long to discover
you
.”

“Well…maybe we should contact Tristan and explain the situation to him,”
Eva suggested. “He seemed like a reasonable person. Maybe we could convince him not to rat us out.”

“
It’s possible. I don’t know…before we make any rash decisions I need to give it some more thought. This has to be handled carefully.”

“We probably don’t have much time,” she reminded him. The worry in his eyes bothered her, particularly since she knew she was the one responsible for putting it there. It was a painful concession. He was the last person in the world she wanted to hurt.

“Yes…I know.” Julian scowled at the sound of Dane’s footsteps skipping carelessly down the stairs. Dropping his voice, he cautioned Eva, “He’ll listen to you more than he will me. You have to let him know how important it is that he return here tomorrow. We need to make sure he gets fed - and soon.”

~*~*~*~

They managed to fit in some sleep sometime after sunrise, and around two in the afternoon Ash left the disheveled wreck of her bed for an appointment with a building contractor. Sami lay among the tangled sheets a little longer, finally dragging her bruised and aching body out of bed to have a warm bubble bath and scrounge up something to eat. She’d woken up starving, but after a few bites of the stale bagel she gave up and tossed it in the trash. Maybe she’d put off going to the grocery store long enough. She’d gotten pretty lax about cooking lately, relying way too much on the resort’s amenities. A girl couldn’t live exclusively on restaurant fare.

She made a trip to the nearest
marketplace, buying only as much as she could carry from her Toyota in the parking garage without having to fool with a cart. Then she made up her bed with fresh sheets, swept the ever-present sand from the tile floors and straightened up the living room. With all that done, she opted to stretch out on the couch and relax with some television. Her muscles were too sore for swimming today.

But
last night’s workout was
so
worth it…

The Civil War miniseries on cable couldn’t keep her mind from
instinctively wandering to thoughts of Ash. It was scary how quickly he’d managed to insinuate himself into her life. She could never have imagined someone as practical as herself falling into his seductive trap. But in her own defense, he
was
pretty damned irresistible.

And where is all this leading, might I ask? What happens when you reach the inevitable end? Do you really think you can have some twisted version of
a relationship with an unhinged man like him? If a man is even what he is. He’s going to wind up hurting you in a bad way. He’s unstable. Dangerous. You know this.

“Shut up,” she muttered to
herself. So her sensible side had finally decided to come alive and wanted to make an appearance
now?
Oh, hell no. Latecomers weren’t welcome. Not at this party.

After dark she couldn’t stand being cooped up with her conscience anymore and headed out to the tiki bar. The band
scheduled for the night was supposed to be really good, and as she approached the crowded outdoor stage she had to admit they weren’t at all overrated. The guy on electric guitar was amazing, probably even better than Dustin from Crash for Glory. There were no empty seats at the bar but Stuart, Logan and Logan’s wife Kayla were crowded against it waiting for their drinks and they waved her over.

“Hey Sami, you’ve met my wife, haven’t you?”
Logan asked.

“Yeah, she was here last week. Hey, Kayla.”

“Hi, Sami.” The willowy blonde smiled. “What do you think of the band?”

“They’re amazing! Where are th
ey from?”

“They’re local,” Stuart informed her.
“Got some serious talent here.”

Busy behind the bar, Laiken took a moment to wink and purse his lips in a playful kiss for her. Sami grinned back at him.
She considered asking Stu if he’d seen Ash around, but thought better of it. She wasn’t about to play the part of possessive lover. That wasn’t a role meant for her.