Jade (Rare Gems Series) (14 page)

“No. I’ve met one. I’ve known him a while
, but he met up with his mate who changed him, and there was a panther linage there with his change. Both reside in the same man. You know him, Quentin Witt. His brother Roger is the one you were—”

“Him, that’s him. Not the Witt guy but the other one.
Galloway, that one that has all the money and makes them plastic shit that them chicks buy. You still hang with him?” He assured him that he did. “Well, there’s his family, you see. Bunch of dames, and from what I heard tell, lookers too. Anyhow…this here partner is looking for the dames. He said that he’s going to make him a wall of their more personal parts. Don’t know that much right now, but he’s thinking one of them is easy pickings.”

“Did you find out which one?”
Sloan was headed toward the door when he realized he was naked, and walked back to his clothes as he waited on Rufus to answer him. When he didn’t after several seconds, Sloan said his name.

“I’m thinking.
Damn it all to hell, I had it. If it helps you at all, her name was some sort of jewel.” This didn’t help really, as all the Erickson women were named after gems. “I think she was something to do with a show of some sorts. Pretty things I’m a thinking.”

Opal was the first name that popped into Sloan’s head. He’d not met this Erickson because she’d been away on business
. Then she was planning a vacation, one that she’d long coveted according to Sapphire. He sat on the bed and tried to think what to do.

“Her name is Opal Erickson
, and she’s in New Orleans now at a large craft show or something. I want you to go there and find her and stick to her until she returns home. According to her sisters, she’s to stop here to drop off her things before she heads to Paris for a month.” His friend started cussing, and Sloan smiled. “I’ll make it worth your while if you do this for me.”

“What?”
The suspicion in Rufus’s voice had him laugh. “If you’re thinking of going through with your threat of sending me to some finishing school, you can fuck off. I like me the way I am.”

“As I’m sure all the ladies do as well.”
Rufus huffed. “I’ll help you buy the house you want. I’ll even put the down payment on it for you.”

Rufus had a problem with money. Not that he spent it all the time
. Quite the contrary, he saved it like it was his job. And he had a great deal of it too. But he hated to part with it. Especially when someone else would spend theirs for him. He laughed when Rufus began making noises about insurance and taxes. Sloan waited for him to finish. He’d pay all those if he had the house he wanted and had wanted for nearly a decade. More, if truth be known.

“And you’ll not bitch like a little girl if I don’t decorate it like one of them fancy magazines you are always looking at?”
He probably would, but he told his friend that he wouldn’t. “And when I have them girls over, the kind I like, you’re not going to turn your nose up at them?”

“You know I will. What fun would we have after all these years together if I didn’t give you a hard time about your choice of women?
Because more often than not, I’m right about what they want from you.” Rufus agreed he’d been right on a couple of them. “What do you say?”

“I’m going.
You got a likeness of her? Or something?” He told him no. “Well I guess I could go down there and snoop around. No harm in that is there?”

He knew the Erickson women well enough to know that if Opal caught Rufus snooping around
, she’d kick his ass all the way back to Ohio. But instead of telling his longtime friend this, he assured him that it would be fine. Smiling, he told him to be careful.

“You want to tell me why
this chickie is so important to Mr. I Don’t Need Anyone in My Life?” Rufus laughed. “You no idea what she looks like, so it must be a favor you’re working on. Is that it? You want to parlay some good will toward someone?”

“I know her sister.
She’s a good person. And if you’re really good and don’t get this girl hurt before she returns here, I’ll introduce you to the gems. All six of the women are gems in their own rights.” Sloan smiled as he finished telling Rufus. “Both Galloway and Witt are mated to one sister each. You’d better hurry or you’ll miss the chance to marry one of them.”

“Marry?
Are you insane? I’d as soon you cut my dick off and serve it up to me with a skewer. Marry my ass.” Rufus went on for several more minutes, and Sloan laughed the entire time. “You might want to take one of them on. You’ve not had a good lay in what now…two, maybe three thousand years? Your willy still working?”

“My willy is just fine
, and I’ve no desire to have a mate. Not now or anytime in the future. I’ve had my fill of women clinging to me and wanting things that are best left untouched.” Rufus sighed heavily before Sloan continued. “I’ll help them out, be their knight in shining armor, but never will I take a mate.”

“I hear you.
I’m thinking maybe it don’t work that way though. I’ve heard tell that once one of them gets their hooks in you, you’re as good as dead meat.” He heard his friend laugh nervously. “I’d just as soon meet the sun if one came along for me. Nasty business, them women. You steer clear of them, ‘kay?”

After assuring Rufus several times that he would
, he went back to the bed. There was nothing he could do today, but he did make a mental note to let Blair know what might be coming. He settled down and wondered if he’d ever meet his mate and hoped that he wouldn’t. A man his age was set in his ways and with his luck, he’d be saddled with an Erickson woman and he’d have to murder her the first time she opened her mouth. Of course, if she looked like these woman, he might just make an effort to enjoy her a time or two first. Closing his eyes, he let his sleep claim him. Tonight was going to be a big night for him.

Chapter 14

Kent woke to the sound of water dripping. He
wasn’t sure where he was at first, but the tick-tick sound of the drip hitting the stone beneath it was something different. Then he remembered that he’d come here to hide. Sitting up slowly, he let his body become accustomed to the night, and then his hunger hit him. Christ, he was starving. Looking at his phone, he realized it had been three days since he’d come here, and his body was weak with the need to feed. Standing up, he moved to the door and stopped when his leg came in contact with a wire. It was tripped before he could think to back off.

Someone had been in his lair.
Moving back into the shadows, Kent stood still, waiting for someone or something to come for him. After long minutes, he moved toward the door again, this time careful where he stepped. Before he could take more than a dozen steps, he found another wire, and this one was set with some kind of explosives.

It took him nearly two hours to get out of his cave. There had been over two dozen of the traps set up at different points along the way
, and he’d had to unravel them before he could move. Not even levitating out would work. There were some traps as high as the cave ceiling and in such tight places that he’d had no choice but to work through them. When he got out, he took a breath of air and smelled the wolf all over the place, as well as the vampire. When he started forward again, thinking he’d find both bastards, he saw the note waving in the slight breeze. Taking the rock off it, he held it up so that he could read it.

“
Congratulations. I wondered if you would make it through our first tests. Sadly, you did, but that’s all right. We get the rest of your short life to play this game. Sincerely, Sloan Crane.”

“Mother fuck.”
Kent tossed the note to the ground, only to find another one attached to a tree not far from where he had found the first one. Taking the nail out, he opened this one to find another note from Crane.

“Too bad about you littering.
You know that the woods around here are protected. Pick up the paper and do the responsible thing and clean up after yourself.” This time it was signed simply “Sloan.”

Kent was bending to pick up the trash when he realized what the fuck he was doing and tossed both pieces to the ground.
Taking flight in the sky as a bird, he was so pissed off he nearly forgot to look for prey. When he landed in the little town just below the caves, he noticed that everything was closed up tight and there wasn’t a person around. He wandered around for nearly an hour looking for anyone and was completely pissed when there wasn’t a soul out. Not even a fucking dog.

It was getting later and later and he needed to feed.
Going to the next town proved to be just as unfruitful. He was ready to go on when he spied another note. This one was attached to a building that Kent knew. He’d fed from the patrons of this bar several times over the past months, and now it was as if someone had come along and told them about him. Kent yanked the note off and nearly didn’t read it, but curiosity got the better of him.

“You must be starved by now. Good.
A hungry vampire is an idiot, and we both know that you’re an idiot. What sort of person kills where he lives? You apparently. But I digress. You must feed, and I’m betting you want something without the taint of silver this time.” Kent felt his blood run cold at the mention of silver. If he could, he’d go and find the fucking wolf and kill him again. “You should know that as you approach each town, the people in it will have the most amazing need to go home, lock their doors, and not let you in. I am quite proud of that little spell, and am glad to see that it’s working.”

There was a large S this time at the end of the note
, but a postscript had been added. “Have you had enough yet? If so, meet me in the alley near the antique shop. You know the place. It’s where you left the body of Alan Witt.”

Kent roared out his anger.
This was going too far. How had the man found out any of this information? And for that matter, where the hell was he? Kent wadded the note up and tossed it in the trash can as he made his way in the opposite direction of the shop. He wasn’t going to walk into a trap any more than he would believe that someone had that much control over humans. If that were the case, he’d have heard about it. Kent hadn’t lived for over five hundred years without learning a thing or two about magic.

At nearly sunrise
, Kent was willing to admit defeat. There wasn’t a person to be found anywhere he looked, and the harder he tried to find someone, the more drained he felt. Making his way to his house this time, he nearly wept when there was another note attached to the front door. He jerked the envelope open and tore the note in half. Reading it was difficult, but he finally got it read.

“You should have come to see me. Now we’re going to do this the hard way.
Your home has been locked from you. As of now, you’ve nowhere to go. The caves that you rested in so quietly for the last several days will no longer allow you to enter. I’ve taken steps.” Kent threw back his head and screamed. It was primal, and he heard birds leave their nests in fear. As he started reading again, he could feel his anger boil over and his sight marred by the red gleam of his kind. The sun was cresting when he finally read the last part.

“
Have you had enough yet? You’ll meet me at the shop or I’ll continue to starve you one night at a time. I know who you are now, and I’ll stop at nothing to bring you to justice. Adam Stein has a great many things to pay for.”

He knew his name. Not the name he’d adopted when he’d come to this world
, but his given name. The one he’d been born with and had used the first few decades of his new life. And that man, Stein, did indeed have a great deal to pay for. Firstly and most heinously was the murder of his family so many years ago.

Kent had no choice but to go to ground.
He hated sleeping beneath the ground almost as much as he hated the man who now tormented him. There were bugs and crawling things there, and he hated them. As soon as the earth settled over him, he tried to think of anything else but where he was, and he thought of the night he’d killed his parents and his sisters and brother.

They’d told him he was no longer welcome into their home.
Not that it had been much of a home, but it was the only one he’d ever known. But when he’d told them what he’d done, how he’d become a man who would live forever, they’d closed the door in his face and forbade him entrance. Kent…Adam then…had begged for hours to be let in, and told them of all the things he could provide for them.

“Go away
, you monster.” His mother had broken his heart with her words and still he tried to reason with her. “You’re a monster of the worst kind. Feeding from the bodies of others like a monster that you are. Go away and never return.”

The next night he’d gone back to the house and they’d been asleep this time. Garlic had hung from every window and over both doors.
He’d tried to cross the threshold but had been unable. His master laughed at him when he’d fallen back after trying to run at it.

“They must invite you in.
As you’ve never felt this was your home, you are unable to enter without permission.” Neal, his maker and sometimes friend, nodded to the house. “Why you’d want to enter that hovel is beyond me, but you must ask them to allow. If I were you, I’d kill the lot of them. No parent should be so unaccepting of their own child.”

Kent had glared at the house and could think where each of them lay. His parents would be in the smallest of the three bedrooms
, and his brother in the larger room he’d shared with him. And his two sisters would be in the kitchen watching the fire all night so that they’d be warm throughout the night.

Neal helped him to bar the doors.
The windows were a little harder for him, as there was no glass, but they’d managed to get them blocked as well. When Neal had handed him a torch, Kent tossed it onto the thatched roof and laughed when it caught so quickly. When the screams started, Kent danced around the yard and was still standing there when the roof collapsed on the long dead occupants. An hour before sunrise found him back at Neal’s house, being given a bath by the most beautiful woman he’d ever met.

“You can fuck her if you want.
She likes it hard.” Neal sat near him as the sponge was moved over his body. “If you fuck her, I want to join you. I don’t want to fuck you physically, mind you, but I want to help you fuck her. She’s prime, and I would like to see her perform with another man.”

True to his word
, Neal never touched him. The woman, however, touched them both in so many ways he still got hard thinking about her. Reaching down to grip his cock, Kent forgot for a moment where he was and found his dick soft and not at all responsive to what he wanted. Having no food would do that to him, he remembered, and he cursed the man who had done this to him again.

“I’ll find you. And when I do
, I’m going to fuck you up so badly that you’ll pray for death.” Kent tried to ease his mind, knowing that he would kill the bastard who had done this to him, then he’d find Jade and show her what she’d been missing from him. Tomorrow night he’d go to the shop, kill the mother fucker that left him notes all over the place, and hunt down Jade once and for all.

~~~

Quentin woke and reached for Jade. He came up empty-handed, as she was no longer in the bed. But her pillow was warm so he thought her in the shower. There, too, he was disappointed and reached for her through their link.

“I’m getting Angie ready for school. They have a field trip today and she has to have a permission slip.
I’m trying to figure out if I can sign it or if you have to.”
She sounded so upset that he wanted to go to her but stayed where he was. Going down there now would get his ass kicked, and he didn’t want his daughter to see it. There were times when having a very independent woman in your life could be scary.

“I’ve made arrangements with the school. You’re her guardian as much as I am and have permission to do whatever it takes for her to go to school. I’m sorry. I should have told you yesterday.”
He smiled. “
You distracted me again.”

“I did no such thing. You came to the Touch and kidnapped me when I was working. How do you expect me to get you ready for the fall festival next week if you’re forever coming in and making me all messed up?”

“I love you all messed up.”
He turned on the shower and stepped into the hot spray as he tried to get her to come up and let him muss her again.
“Why don’t you come up here after Angie is gone and wash my back? I’ll make it worth your while.”

“I
can’t this morning. I have three trucks coming in at eight and nine, and I still have to finish what you took me from yesterday.”
He grinned as he thought of what he’d done to her when he’d kidnapped her from work. Christ, he simply could not get enough of her body and her.
“Are you even listening to me?”

He hadn’t been but didn’t think it was smart of him to say so.
“Yes, you said you were going into work. I got water in my ears and didn’t hear the rest.”

“You don’t need your ears to listen to me this way.
I said Angie needs twenty dollars. I’ve had to borrow it from Mrs. Douglas, so make sure you pay her back.”
Quentin had meant to make sure that Jade had her credit cards, but every time he was with her, he forgot everything but being inside of her. Before he could tell her he wanted to see her, she continued talking.

“Blair wants to
talk to you about the project you and he are working on. And Sapphire brought over some proofs for you. She said that you need to make a decision on the color today so she can get them printed. I like the blue ones, if it matters.”

“It does and just tell her that we want them in blue.
Also, this thing with Blair, it’s about the newspaper ad that’s coming out for the festival. Can you meet with him and see what it’s about? I have to go to the bank and set up the accounts for the businesses. I won’t be but a few hours, and I know that you wanted to get this in the paper tomorrow.”
Quentin was putting his tie together when he entered the kitchen, but all he found there was Mrs. Douglas. “I missed them again, didn’t I?”

“You did.
But the little one left you a note, and your missus said she’d call you later. Also there are several calls for you already this morning. Mr. Blair said for you to call him first thing. He said that it’s important.” Quentin nodded at her as he read over the phone messages. “You should know that the missus is planning dinner for tonight. She hopes you’ll be here.”

Quentin took the offered cup of coffee and sat down.
He was smiling over Angie’s note to him as the phone rang. He heard Mrs. Douglas telling the caller that he was there and to wait. She told him it was Mr. Blair.

“You’re a hard man to reach,” Blair said in way of greeting.
“I’ve already set up a time to meet with Jade on the article we’re running, but I need a quote from you. There is some talk about how you bought the place for your soon-to-be wife and you’re just letting her play.”

Quentin smiled.
“And it’s for the most part true. Do you suppose we should let them run with it or tell them the truth?”