chapter Nine
If Alexis could wet her pants still, she would have done it in relief when she found her sister asleep in bed.
Pressing her hand to her heart, she allowed herself to relax a little. "Jesus," she whispered in the dark room. "Good thing I can't die because I think I had a heart attack tonight."
Assessing the situation, she realized Brittany had a puke pan next to her, a wet washcloth lying on her dresser?a normal no-no for fastidious Brittany ?and a glass of water on the nightstand. Her sister must be sick.
Alexis reached over and smoothed Brittany 's sweat-soaked hair off her forehead. No fever that she could tell, but she looked pale and in pain, even in her sleep.
Brittany stirred. "Alex?" Her eyes fluttered open.
"Yep, it's me. Are you sick, Brit? "
"I have the flu."
Alexis felt sympathy and guilt stab her simultaneously. Here she'd been out dancing in a bar and Brittany was sick in bed, calling her for help.
"Can I get you anything, baby?"
"No, I'm okay." Brittany turned on her side and pulled the blanket up farther. "After I called you and you didn't answer, Corbin came."
"Corbin?French vampire Corbin?" The dickhead who had slept with her sister then left without a word?The vampire scientist known to be researching a cure to immortality?That Corbin? Alexis didn't like the sound of that at all.
"Yeah.He found me in the bathroom and changed my wet clothes. He tucked me in." She sighed, her eyes drifting shut.
Alexis had a hard time picturing Corbin Atelier tucking Brittany into bed. "That sounds nice. Are you sure you weren't dreaming, though?"
Brittany frowned. "I don't think so. He said he was taking me to bed. He took my clothes off."
Sex dream.The poor kid was conjuring up Corbin in her state of delirium.
"Okay, shhh . It was just a dream, sweetie." Alexis fussed with the covers, wanting to kick Corbin Atelier. He had gotten under Brittany 's skin in a way Alexis had never seen another man, and she didn't like it. If she ever ran into the Frenchman, she'd give him a roundhouse kick to the crotch for hurting her sister's feelings.
"Just a dream?" Brittany sounded disappointed. "Maybe that's why his accent wasn't as strong as it normally is."
Alexis stroked her cheek. "I'm sure that's it. It was just a dream."
"What do you mean you don't know where she is?" Seamus stared at the bodyguard in front of his apartment, anger, disbelief, and fear rising together in him. "And what happened to the other guard?"
"He went with Miss Kim and Kelsey. We wouldn't let them leave alone, Mr. Fox." The jackass had the nerve to sound indignant.
"You weren't supposed to let them leave at all!" Seamus had no clue where they could have gone. Cara had just assured him she understood the dangers they were facing and would stay in the apartment. Why the hell would she leave?
"I sorry."
"Never mind.Just call his fucking cell phone and tell me where they are." Seamus ran his fingers through his hair and tried not to worry. Ethan had gone to check on Alexis. Cara and Kelsey were missing. He had a bad, bad feeling about all of this.
The guard dialed on his cell phone and spoke in a low voice. Seamus resisted the urge to snatch the phone out of his hand.
"Sir, Daniel says they're at a club. A, uh, an exotic dance club called SomeLike It Hot. Miss Kim wanted to pick up her paycheck."
That made no sense whatsoever. Why would Cara choose to pick up her paycheck on the same night she'd won twenty thousand dollars at Texas Hold ' Emand she'd nearly been killed by an assassin?
"Tell him to stay put. Do not let Cara or Kelsey out of his sight for a second. I'll be there in five minutes."
The guard relayed the message as Seamus checked his pocket for his keys and wallet.
"Mr. Fox? Daniel says they went in the back andit's ladies only. He had to stay in the club."
Wonderful."Tell him to find them and keep them with him or he'll be looking for a new place of employment."
And with that, Seamus ran for the elevator.
When Cara burst into the dressing room at the club, she found Dawn's boyfriend, Bryan, on the floor kneeling over her. He shot her a wild glance over his shoulder, his face leeched of all color, shock and horror glazing his eyes.
"Cara Jesus. Look at her God. We need help "His voice trailed off in a sob, and Cara's stomach clenched.
Bryanwas a 250-pound bouncer with more tattoos than fingers. Yet he looked like he was going to throw up. She tried to steel herself for what had happened to Dawn, but nothing could prepare her for the sight of her friend sprawled out naked on the dirty carpet, vicious bruises and angry red teeth marks all over her body.Everywhere. On her neck, shoulders, sprawling out over her breasts and stomach, her navel, and peppered over three fourths of her legs. She was a pearly white color, her skin cool and damp,a sheen of perspiration glistening.
"Oh, Dawn.Oh, God." Cara swallowed her revulsion and fell to the ground besideBryan .
"She's still alive," Kelsey said. "She's just lost too much blood."
"What?" She didn't look alive. Dawn lay very still. But when Cara glanced at Dawn's chest, she saw it was rising and falling in small, barely visible breaths. She burst into tears of relief and grabbed Dawn's hand. "Hang in there, sweetie, you're going to be fine.Bryan , did you call 911?"
"Yeah, like five minutes ago." He leaned forward, touched a tentative hand to Dawn's cheek. "Is she really alive?"
Miraculously, her eyes opened.Bryan let out a sob and a curse.
"The ambulance is pulling up," Kelsey said from the doorway.
"I'll go get them,"Bryan said, swiping at his cheeks. He ran for the door.
"Cara?" Dawn whispered. "I'm cold."
"I'm sorry, honey." Cara grabbed a dressing robe off the clothes rack in the corner. She tucked it over Dawn as gently as possible. "What happened? What did he do to you?"
Dawn sighed. "I don't know why I did it I cheated onBryan . But it feltgood , Cara. It felt so good, the best sex I've ever had. I begged him not to stop. I'm not sure what happened, but I think I passed out from pleasure." She wet her lips with her tongue. "Why do I feel like this like there's an ice cube on my chest and I can't move?"
"You lost some blood but the ambulance is here now." Cara tried to sound reassuring. She gave Dawn a smile. "I think after tonightBryan may be giving you that engagement ring you've been after. You scared the crap out of him. You didn't hear it from me, but he's out in the hallway crying right now."
"Really?"Dawn shivered, her teeth clattering together. "Maybe I don't deserveBryan after what I did."
"It wasn't your fault. Trust me." Then Cara squeezed her hand and moved back to give the paramedics room as they maneuvered their gurney into the small room.
The first thing out of the one's mouth was, "What the ?What happened to her? Did something bite her?"
Cara just shook her head.Bryan said, "I found her like this. I don't know what happened."
Ten minutes later, they had Dawn hooked up to an IV, settled on the gurney under a heated blanket, and were wheeling her back out to transport her to the hospital.
Cara stood in the doorway for a minute, watching them retreat. She rubbed her forehead and turned to Kelsey, who was in the back of the room sitting on a stool. "Kelsey, I guess we need to find our guard. I want to go to the hospital and make sure Dawn's going to be okay."
"She'll be fine."
The voice made her jump. It was a man, coming from behind her in the dressing room. Cara turned slowly and came face to face with a dark-haired man in an expensive suit, a cigarette burning in his hand. He wasn't good looking so much as he was striking, and the smile on his lips was crooked, devious.
"Did you do this to Dawn?" This had to be him. The one Kelsey had been talking about. Cara could feel his coldness as he shrugged his shoulder.
"Yes." He took a drag off his cigarette and blew smoke in her direction. "And even though I lost it for a minute or two, I'm not going to apologize for it. We both enjoyed ourselves before she passed out. She'll be fine after they give her some blood back. I bet she even begs me for it again."
Cara's stomach roiled. She wasn't entirely sure what he had done to Dawn, but she found herself clenching her fists in disgust. "Who are you and what do you want?"
"I just want to talk to you for a minute." He turned to Kelsey, who was watching with wide eyes. "Come sit with me, Kelsey." He held out his hand.
She started to shake her head no,then frowned. "Kyle?"
His face relaxed, lip turning up in a smile. "You do remember."
Cara couldn't tell if Kelsey remembered anything or not, but she did walk right over to him and let the man take her hand. She sat down on the couch next tohim, let his hand rest on her knee. It made Cara's stomach churn even more viciously. She wondered if he had done to Kelsey what he'd done to Dawn.
"I didn't expect you to be a vampire," he said to Cara. "Though I can understand why Fox wanted you. You're a nice package."
If he thought she was going to thank him for the compliment, he was insane. Of course, it seemed like he was a lunatic anyway. She wanted to just grab Kelsey and run like hell, but Kelsey was still holding his hand and didn't look particularly concerned. Cara didn't think Kelsey would follow her if she ran.
In fact, Kelsey was turning to him.Running her fingers over the nape of his neck to massage him. Patting the back of his hair down like he was a little kid instead of an evil vampire.
He didn't seem to mind her touch. He just said, "So, Cara, you belong to Seamus Fox. I wonder why he would break the law foryou? Aside from the obvious, that is." He blew more smoke out. "I'm curious."
Kelsey brushed cigarette ash off his pant leg.
"You are incredibly annoying, you know that?" he told her, though without any malice.
"A lot of people say that about me," Kelsey said with a complete lack of guile.
The man laughed and moved his hand farther up her thigh. "I'm not surprised." He turned to Cara. "You can leave now and go visit your friend Dawn. Kelsey and I have some catching up to do."
Over her undead body."I'm not leaving without Kelsey."
He iooked amused. "Alright, fine. I have another appointment anyway. I'll leave. I'm very accommodating."
Somehow that's not the word Cara would have used to describe him.
Letting go of Kelsey's leg, he stood up. "I would never hurt Kelsey, you know." He moved in closer to Cara until his arm brushed hers and his dark, empty eyes locked with hers. Behind the cigarette odor, Cara caught a hint of the same sickly sweet smell the other vamp had. She stood still, determined not to show her fear, to not move away from him.
"You, on the other hand, are a different story."
Then he was gone and Cara released a whoosh of air. "Who the hell is that, Kelsey?"
Kelsey just stood up with a shrug and straightened the bottom of her dress. "That's Kyle."
"Bait," Seamus said with a grimace. "That's what your friend Dawn was. He wanted you there for some reason."
They were sitting in the back of the club, at the very table where Seamus had sat that first night with Kelsey, when he had watched Cara dancing behind the screen. Like that night, he ordered drinks for everyone at the table to assuage suspicion and to keep the waitress from losing out on tips. Three dancers were on the stage doing some routine with feather boas and nothing else.
"I don't understand, Seamus." Cara rubbed her eyes, looking tired and worried. She had just gotten off the phone with her friend's boyfriend. He had said that Dawn was asleep, having been given a blood transfusion and painkillers, and he had suggested she wait until the morning to visit.
Seamus hadn't seen Dawn's condition, but it sounded like she'd been bled too heavily by the vampire Cara had encountered.
"Why would anyone want me?" Cara asked.
"I don't know." Seamus kept thinking back to that night get Fox and his girlfriend . At the time he'd assumed they meant Kelsey, but maybe they had meant Cara.But why? Who had a reason to kill him?
"Let's dance," Kelsey said suddenly to the bodyguard, grabbing his hand and pulling at him.
He looked horrified and shot a confused look at Seamus. "Mr. Fox?"
But Seamus decided it would be better if Kelsey weren't at the table when he told Cara about the night Alexis had found Kelsey, so he just smiled. "Go on and have a little fun, Daniel. Dance with Kelsey. I'll keep an eye on things."
That should be ample punishment for Daniel for taking Cara and Kelsey to the club in the first place.
Daniel dragged his feet, but Kelsey tugged and pulled until she had him out on the dance floor. It didn't block anyone's view of the nude dancers on stage, but was a free forum to bump and grind and imitate the dancers in whatever way club-goers might choose. Currently there were two sultry women dancing. Daniel stood like a stone statue, but Kelsey threw her arms around his neck and wiggled up and down the length of his brawny body.
Seamus almost felt like laughing.
"What's wrong with Kelsey?" Cara asked, watching her with the bodyguard. "What happened to her? She's like I don't know."
"Missing a few cards in her deck?"
She nodded.
"Well, Kelsey was never exactly a genius. She was always a bit ditzy, but sweet.And a party girl. Always dancing and drinking and picking up men in the casino. Then after the presidential debate in early September, Alexis went up to Ethan's suite and found Kelsey drained of blood. The vampire who did it was still there and he stabbed Alexis, almost killing her. Ethan turned Alexis, and I gave Kelsey my blood and brought her back to life. Since then, she's been different." He watched her run her palms over Daniel's chest while her hips rocked against him. She wasn't smiling. "She doesn't laugh anymore. She's afraid to be alone. She seems more scattered than ever."
"She knows the guy, Seamus." Cara leaned closer to him. "I didn't want to say anything in front of her, but she knows him and he knows her. He seems almost fond of her. And she calls him Kyle."
"Fond of her?"Seamus closed his eyes. Pictured that night Cara had been killed. Saw the thin man, the young vampire, saw how he had invited Kelsey to follow him and how she had, without hesitation.
"What does he look like? Is he thin, dressed well, darkhair, has sort of a quiet confidence?"
"Yes." Cara shifted in her chair restlessly, leaning in his direction. "Do you know him?"
Seamus shook his head. He took Cara's hand in his, wanting to touch her, to reassurehimself she was alright.Safe. "No, but he was there the night we met. He was in the alley, and while I was dealing with the other two, he calmly told Kelsey to come with him and she did."
"So she knew him already. I tried to ask her how she knew him, but she didn't really answer in any way that made sense."
"But he knows her, and he knew who I was, and he knew who you were tonight."
"Did she ever have any weird experiences before? Date a guy she was afraid of?"
"Wait a minute." Seamus sat straight up, squeezing Cara's hand as a thought came to him. "Wait a goddamn minute. Kelsey is the one who knew the guy who shot Ethan in the casino six weeks ago. She's the one who took him upstairs,then she left him alone up there because she read his mind and didn't like what she saw. Said he was dark and that he was going to kill Ethan. Ethan went up to investigate since she'd left the poor guy ina vampire glamour, but he was out of it by then, and he shot Ethan. He wasn't a vampire, though. We have it on tape. You can't see Kelsey, but you can see him." Seamus thought he'd recognize him if he was the same guy who'd been in the alley, but it would be nice to have a second set of eyes confirming all three were the same man. "If you saw him on tape, would you recognize him?"
"I think so." Cara looked out over the dance floor. "But why doesn't she remember? It's like when she was drained of blood, they took the memory with it."
"I don't know, Cara." Seamus studied Kelsey on the dance floor, moving sensually in that purple dress,her dark hair down her back. "I don't understand Kelsey's role in any of this."
The dancers moved their boas, used them as lassos on one another so the four were flush up against each other like naked book-ends. Seamus watched absently, the lights moving from pink to blue to pink again.
"Cara, is Jodi Madsen here tonight?" Maybe it was time to see what Jodi might have to say about her niece Brittany Baldizzi and who her biological father might be.
"I'm sure she's in the back. She's usually here on the weekends. I can go get her."
Cara stood up. She was watching the dancers on stage, too. She had a deep frown on her face. "Is that what I look like, Seamus? When I'm dancing?"
Seamus couldn't read the expression on her face. This smacked of a trap. Any way he answered would be wrong, he was guessing. So he shook his head, determined not to trip himself up."Absolutely not. You look way better than that."
"Well, I should hope so," she said, frown deepening. "They look sort of ridiculous."
Oh, damn. He pulled her down onto his lap. She perched there stiffly but didn't pull away. "Trust me,Cara, you look amazing when you dance. In three hundred years you are the most beautiful woman I've ever met."
Eyes still on the foursome gyrating with the boas and each other, she said, "I thought you were three hundred and seventy. So there was a prettier woman in the first seventy years? Was she a dancer, too?"
Somehow he'd fallen in a hole anyway. "No, that's not what I meant. I was rounding down. Cara, in three hundred and seventy-one years you are the most beautiful woman I've ever known." Prettier than Marie, even, and she had been a stunning petite French beauty. Not that he was going to mention Marie.
She turned back to him.Looked at him, curious, studying. "What are we, Seamus?To each other? Is this the way it is for other vampires when they're turned? Do they feel for the vampire who turned them what I feel?"
"What do you feel, Cara?" Seamus felt the taut muscle of her backside and thighs against him, and he felt a strange, growing tingling sensation inside his chest. He also felt like he was dangling over the edge of a very high cliff, like the Cliffs of Moher , and he had no vampire flying skills. He was going to fall, and smack hard, if he didn't watch his step.
"I like you," she said softly. "That's what I feel." She kissed his forehead, her lips warm,then stood up. "I'll go get Jodi for you."
Seamus watched her walk away, her body a gorgeous work of art, all soft curves and contrasts. Her hair moved across her lacy lavender top, the black edges cut bluntly, long shaggy bangs framing her face when she glanced back at him over her shoulder, giving him a small, tense smile.
So she liked him. That should be good. But he suddenly felt like he'd just been delivered an "I'm glad we're friends" speech. And he was pretty damn positive he didn't want to be just friends.
So if he didn't want to be just friends, what did he want when it came to Cara?
He had no idea.
Not a fucking clue.