Thirst [All-American Vampires 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (22 page)

When he began removing her shirt, she seemed to snap out of it.

“What are you doing?” she asked softly, but she didn’t stop him. With quiet efficiency he stripped her shirt off and pulled his own over her head.

“Just getting you cleaned up, baby. How are you feeling?”

“I’m not sure. I…I’ve never actually seen anyone shot before.”

“It’s a shock, I know, sweetheart. But you did great. Just great.”

She let out a whimper and threw her arms around his neck. He held her close, rubbing his arms over her back and whispering words of comfort and telling her how proud he was of her. Brady came up behind him.

“Everything’s all cleaned up, boss.” Brady spoke quietly, and Claire didn’t stir from her position against Hawk’s chest. “I stashed the body in the trunk of their vehicle and cleaned up the mess good enough to pass muster.”

He turned to nod to his friend. “Good. What did you do with the other two?”

“They’re in my car. One in the trunk and one in the backseat.”

Claire pushed away from his chest and looked up. “I know them.”

Hawk studied her face. She seemed to be pulling herself together. “Who are they?”

“They’re the guys who kidnapped me and Cass.”

“Do you know their names?”

“Yeah. The”—she took a deep breath—“the one that was shot. That was Buck. The redhead is Jimmy, and the other one is Wayne.”

“Okay. That’s good. How’re you feeling, sweetheart?”

He saw her attempt a weak smile. “I’m better. Sorry I fell to pieces on you.”

He moved to the back again and grabbed a bottle of blood. “Here. Drink this.” He held the bottle out to her, watching in satisfaction as she sipped delicately. She’d looked a little like she might be going into shock, and he thought the blood would help her.

Brady spoke. “I’ve gotta say, you handled yourself just fine, Miss Landry. I couldn’t have asked for better.”

“Thanks. It was so unexpected. I didn’t even know he was by the truck until he started trying to break out the window.”

“It wasn’t your fault.” Hawk wanted to make that clear. “You did just what I told you to do. I forgot about the third man, so that was my fault.”

“Mine, too. We both knew there was a third man. We just fuck…er, messed up,” Brady added.

Claire did smile weakly at that. “So what now?”

Hawk looked her over critically. “You feel good enough to drive?”

“Yeah. I can do that.”

He turned to Brady. “I’ll drive the vamp’s car. We’ll take them to that house out on the west side that I told you about earlier. Claire will drive this one. You follow behind her in yours.”

“Will do.”

Brady moved to his vehicle, and Hawk turned to Claire. Reaching out, he cupped her chin in his hand. “You sure you’re up to this?”

“I’m positive. I’ve got this, Hawk.”

Hawk nodded. “All right. Let’s do it.”

He helped Claire out of the back and into the driver’s seat. He moved around the vehicle and used Claire’s bloody shirt to brush out as much glass as he could before shutting the door. Then he went back around to Claire.

“Pull out and then wait for me. I’ll get ahead of you. Then you just stay close. Okay?”

“Okay.”

He dropped a quick kiss on her mouth before closing the door and moving to the other vehicle. In moments they were on their way.

Claire followed closely behind Hawk, all her focus on her driving. She had to keep it together. Earlier, when Brady had shot Buck, she hadn’t been sure that she would be able to handle it. For a bit there, she had completely shut down. It was Hawk’s voice and the warmth of his body heat that had drawn her back and eased the chill that went clear down to her soul.

Though she was a vampire, she wasn’t a killer. She had never even seen a dead body before except at funerals where they were laid out in caskets and looked like they were sleeping. Not with gaping holes in their heads, their blood and bits of brain splattered all around. She shuddered as she recalled looking down and seeing all the blood when Hawk had started cleaning her up. Swallowing down the bile that threatened to rise into her throat, she just kept her eyes on the road ahead, her hands tightly gripping the steering wheel.

Trying to remove the picture of the dead body from her mind, Claire forced her thoughts to Hawk. He had been amazing. The way he had talked to Buck and maneuvered him into doing what he wanted him to do. When he had looked at her and she had seen the warmth and determination in his eyes, she hadn’t felt as frightened. She had known that if anyone could save her, it was Hawk. And he had. He had acted. He and Brady. Between the two of them, they had taken care of everything. Then, when it was all over, he had been so tender and gentle with her, reassuring her until the coldness of the shock had passed. The warmth that was her love for him expanded even more within her chest.

The end of the streetlights signaled that they had left behind the city limits and were moving further into a more rural area. Houses were getting fewer and farther between, and so were passing automobiles. They had traveled several miles before Claire noticed that their speed had fallen drastically. Hawk braked and then turned on his blinker, and she realized that they had arrived at their destination.

As she followed Hawk down the narrow dirt drive, she tried not to think about what the men planned to do with the prisoners that they’d taken. She knew that Hawk wanted some answers from them, and she hoped that they would just tell them what they needed to know. Even if they did, though, she knew they couldn’t let them go. They would just run back to Simone and tell her everything that had happened. And the last thing that Hawk needed was to have to worry about Simone at the same time he was trying to rescue Cassidy.

Her mouth became a firm line. Whatever was necessary to rescue Cass, she would do it. She wasn’t going to wimp out now. If the vamps had to die, then she’d help kill them.

The drive ended in front of a large house. Claire pulled up beside Hawk and parked. After turning the car off, she sat and stared at the dark building before her. It was deserted, that much was obvious. Windows were broken out, and graffiti paint covered the porch. The whole place had a spooky quality, and she almost laughed. It was perfect for a bunch of vampires.

Movement from the side caught her eye, and she turned her head in time to see Hawk getting out of the car beside her and walking over to say something to Brady. The other vampire nodded and got out to stand with his boss. They both spoke for several minutes, occasionally casting unreadable glances in her direction. She pried her fingers from the steering wheel and tried to just breathe calmly.

At last Hawk nodded and began moving in her direction. Not wanting to appear weak, she opened her door and slid out. When Hawk reached her, she felt his eyes examining her.

“You okay, sweetheart?”

“Hanging in there.” She managed a smile. “Where are we?”

He looked over at the house. “We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

“How did you even know about this place?”

“One of my agents is from here. This used to be his house before he was turned.”

“Why did he let it fall down?”

Hawk shook his head. “He won’t explain. It’s something to do with his turning, but he hasn’t ever told me much more than that, and I don’t like to pry.”

“I guess everyone has their own story to tell about how they were made vampire.”

“Yeah. Look, Claire. I want you to go on inside the house. See if you can make yourself comfortable.”

She glanced again at the dark building. “Where are you going?”

“Brady and I need to take care of…something.”

That’s when it hit her. They were going to get rid of Buck’s body.

Trying not to think about what they were going to do with it, she nodded. “Okay.”

He leaned forward to drop a kiss on her forehead. “Good girl. It won’t take long. We’re just going into the woods a ways. I’m not sure if the electricity in the house is on or not, but don’t turn on any lights if there is.”

She understood that he didn’t want to attract any unwanted attention to the property. What they were doing wasn’t exactly legal in the eyes of the humans. She looked over to where Brady stood near his car. She could see the vampire in the backseat. It was Jimmy. “What about the other vampires?”

“They’re not going anywhere. The cuffs we put on them are iron coated with silver. We’ll take care of them as soon as we get back.”

She reached up impulsively and gave him a quick but hard hug. “Don’t be long.”

“Count on it.”

Claire turned and quickly moved past the overgrown lawn and up onto the rickety porch. She pushed open the door, which was luckily unlocked. She cast a quick look back, but when she saw that the trunk was lifted on the vampire’s car, she immediately looked away and moved on into the house.

It was as bad on the inside as it had been on the outside. The curtains were rotting, half fallen, and covered in dust. The few pieces of furniture scattered through the room were either broken or uninviting. She moved past the living room and what appeared to be a library. Down a narrow hallway that led straight back, Claire picked her way, carefully avoiding the debris that was gathered in various spots. At the end of the hallway, she found the kitchen.

It actually wasn’t that bad, considering. A long, low table with four chairs sat against one wall. It was one of those sturdy-looking pieces of furniture, built more for endurance than beauty. A door stood half open near the table, and Claire peeked in. Seeing stairs running down, she realized it was the basement.

After she’d finished exploring the ground floor, she moved to the staircase and started up. Each stair let out a creaking groan, and she couldn’t stop a shiver of apprehension as she climbed higher. The top floor was just as empty as the bottom floor had been, though it seemed to have weathered the passage of time better. The first bedroom had a bed and dresser. The bed was made, and when she pulled the covers back, the sheets below smelled a bit musty but not too bad.

There was another bed in a second bedroom, but the third was empty. Hearing some noise below, she began making her way back down the stairs. Hawk and Brady were leading an unwilling Jimmy and Wayne into the house. When Hawk saw her, he stopped.

“By any chance did you see somewhere we could put these two?”

Claire thought for a moment. “There’s a basement. The door to it is in the kitchen. It’s straight back down this hallway.”

The men started dragging their prisoners the direction she had indicated.

“Watch out for the trash on the ground. There’s a lot of it,” she warned them.

Not knowing what else to do, she followed them to the kitchen and watched as they pushed their prisoners into the basement. She hovered in the doorway, looking down into the gloom but not venturing any further. She could hear them moving around, getting the vamps settled. Backing away from the door, she went to sit down at the table. It wasn’t too long before Hawk and Brady joined her.

Brady grabbed one of the chairs and jabbed it beneath the basement doorknob to prevent the door from being opened. Claire thought that it wouldn’t stop the vamps if they got loose, but it would sure as heck slow them down. Then Brady went to prop himself up against the counter while Hawk took a seat beside Claire.

“Now what?” Claire couldn’t contain her curiosity.

“Now we let them stew,” Brady answered.

Hawk nodded in agreement. “Let them think about the predicament they’re in and what happened to their buddy. Sometimes that’s all it takes to get people to spilling their guts.”

“But how long will you wait? If we wait too long, we won’t make it to Memphis by dawn.”

Brady just looked at her, his face inscrutable.

Hawk sighed. “We’re going to spend the day here, Claire.”

“What?” She shuddered. “But this place is awful.”

“We’ll just have to make do. We’ve got to find out why these guys were following you.”

“But you said they might spill their guts.”

“It’s going to take longer than we’ve got before dawn, Claire.”

Brady chimed in, “Waiting them out takes longer than beating the information out of them. But it’s usually a lot more reliable. One of those two will cave, I’m thinking. And he’ll probably do it within the next few hours.”

“Seeing their friend die had to shake them up. They know we’re serious, so they probably won’t try to bullshit us too much,” Hawk agreed with Brady.

“So you’re not going to kill them?” Claire wanted to be sure she understood.

“Not if we can help it.” Hawk’s eyes were hard. “I’m gonna make a quick phone call. Quinn’s got some guys in Memphis. I’m sure when we’ve got what we want out of our two guests, Quinn will have some questions of his own for them. After all, regardless of why they’re after you, Claire, these guys were or are employees of Simone. They probably know some interesting details about her operation. Information we need badly.”

* * * *

After Hawk got off the phone with Quinn, he stood up. “Brady, let’s unload our stuff that we’re going to need for the day.”

Brady nodded.

Claire looked up at him. “What did Quinn say?”

“He’s going to send two of his men tomorrow night to take the prisoners off our hands. Luckily he’d sent them on to Memphis to assist us, so they’re not too far away.”

“That’s good.” He could see she was relieved that they wouldn’t have to deal with Jimmy or Wayne much longer.

“Why don’t you see about arranging for some place for us to sleep? Brady will need someplace down here on the first floor so he can keep an ear out for our guests just in case they try something stupid.”

“Okay.”

He and Brady went out to the vehicles and got their overnight bags and some bottles of blood from the ice chest. Hawk made a mental note to stop somewhere and get some more ice. Eloise had refilled the chest before they’d left her place, but they’d need some fresh pretty soon. Once they’d brought everything inside, Brady returned to the kitchen to check on the prisoners while Hawk climbed the staircase in search of Claire.